MISS SPIDER'S BEDTIME STORY FOR THE iPAD

Getting the little bugs of Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch to sleep on time becomes a problem, so arachnid parents Miss Spider and Holley make a wishing web to keep track of bedtimes. If the buggies behave for several nights in a row, they get to go to the fair. But Miss Spider and Holley find they’re the ones staying up late and in need of a night of sound sleep. The app features the same cleanly rendered computer animation featured on the animated show. In fact, it includes a 13-minute episode starring Kristin Davis as Miss Spider to go with the storybook. The story’s pages are stuffed with sound and short animations activated by tapping on characters. Narration and music can be started or muted on the fly, and the app has puzzles, painting pages and a match game. A button at the top left clears all navigation and makes each page a color-saturated illustration that retains the push-button animations. The story is slight—it borders on impenetrable to readers unfamiliar with the Miss Spider world—but there’s plenty to do and see beyond the main read-along. (iPad storybook app. 4-7)