| Moving Picture Books (all apps) |
| MPB: Spaghetti (Age 2+) | |||||||||||
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Every so often I hunt for good story books on the iPhone. It just feels like a perfect app for the device. I don’t just want to watch a video. I don’t just want a physical book on the phone. I want an app that is interactive, something will all the benefits of physical books, but with bonuses that a physical book just cannot achieve.
One day I came across the Moving Picture Books range of apps. This review is for the free “Spaghetti” story. A range of additional paid stories are also available.
When I started up this app for the first time I thought I might have reached my nirvana when it comes to story book apps on the iPhone. The graphics were great (similar to a real child’s story book you may buy), but animated (bonus!). The sound track was great quality too (another bonus over a physical book). The written text highlighted on the screen as the voice track read it (YES!). I thought all my dreams had come true.
Then I paid a bit more attention to Big-T (my 3yo boy) using the app. I watched him with curiosity. Where did I recognize that expression from? Then it struck me. It was if he was watching TV. The interaction you get with a physical book had been lost. Sigh. Nirvana slipped through my finders.
The Application
The Moving Picture Books apps are a cross between books and animated cartoon videos. Words are displayed (and highlighted as read), but you can sit and watch and have the book read to you without doing anything yourself.
This book, Spaghetti, tells the story of “On top of spaghetti, all covered in cheese, I lost my poor meat ball when somebody sneezed”. It goes through once slowly, then repeats singing the words to the melody.
The Good
- The quality is good: good graphics, good sound.
- The book text highlighted as it was spoken, helping children learning to read to read along with the sound track. I have always been surprised my story books don’t do this – it just seems so obvious if you want to teach your child to read.
- Spaghetti first reads then sings the story.
- The stories are a reasonable length – not too long for children to loose interest, not too short either.
The Bad
- Almost no interativity/engagement for the child. Its basically playing a video clip. (If you touch the screen while playing, you actually get the video pause, rewind, etc controls as per watching any other video.)
Educational Value
It is a story book. It does encourage reading and listening. It does have a bit of singing as well which some kids may enjoy. Lots of positive aspects.
My only gripe is the lack of interactivity with the child. For example, it might be nice if you touch a word it speaks just that word – so the child can use it as an aid for learning to read. Maybe that is just better left for a different type of app. Maybe I just need to keep looking.
My Score
4 stars. It has got a lot of positive aspects, but with the lack of engagement (at least for Big-T who just watched it like TV) reducing the education merit and hence score. Yes, the words were there and highlighted as read, but Big-T could happy ignore it. I also found Big-T did not seem to overly enjoy this app. If I had to guess I would say he can watch TV any time – he wanted something more engaging he could interact with.
If you do enjoy it or find it useful, Moving Picture Books have a range of other titles that are worth checking out too.
Get it in iTunes
More information, screen shots, and user reviews can be found in the iTunes store.
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