Although this app isn’t doing anything radically different, its simple design, attractive artwork and excellent narration...
While animal alphabet apps are proliferating like bunny rabbits, this app’s clean design makes it stand out from the throngs.
Using a square shape that echoes familiar board books, this alphabet app combines effective narration, appealing illustrations and familiar animals to help young children learn their ABCs. With only a few exceptions, the animals are likely to be familiar to toddlers, ranging from an alligator to a bear to a turtle. The digital illustrations have a cartoon quality, but there’s a real sweetness to them. The soothing palette and lack of animation keeps the energy subdued. Straightforward setting controls allow young readers or an adult to choose the narration style and the character voice (options include a 5-year-old girl, an 8-year-old girl or a preschool teacher). All of the narrators are effective, letting young readers identify with the voices, although it’s too bad there isn’t a male narrator as well. Users swipe between screens to move sequentially through the alphabet or double-tap to bring a new letter to the screen in random order. The touch screen is a bit oversensitive, and this may frustrate young readers trying to activate the random feature.
Although this app isn’t doing anything radically different, its simple design, attractive artwork and excellent narration make it an effective way to share the ABCs with babies and preschoolers . (iPad alphabet app. 1-3)Pub Date: May 11, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Anna and Ava LLC
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Preserving the look of the classic board book—even to the trim size and rounded corners—this makeover folds new into old in such inventive ways that it may take more than a few passes to discover all the interactive features. Aboard a ship that rocks in response to a tilt of the tablet a set of animal passengers bounce belowdecks. First they take a bath featuring user-created bubbles, and then they brush their teeth using water so hot that the whole screen hazes up with wipe-able “steam.” Pajama-clad, all then wobble—or, tweaked by a finger, rocket—back outside for a bit of exercise before bed. (Readers control this part by twirling the moon.) In the finest animation of all, every touch of the night sky in the final scene brings a twinkling star into temporary being. Along with making small movements that resemble paper-engineered popup effects, Boynton’s wide eyed passengers also twitch or squeak (or both) when tapped. And though they don’t seem particularly sleepy or conducive to heavy lids, an optional reading by British singer Billy J. Kramer (whose well-traveled voice also pronounces each word individually at a touch), backed by soothing piano music, supplies an effectively soporific audio. “The day is done. / They say good night, / and somebody / turns off the light.” This is as beautiful as the developer’s earlier PopOut! Peter Rabbit while styling itself perfectly to Boynton's whimsy. (Ipad board-book app. 1-3)
Pub Date: March 7, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Loud Crow Interactive
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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