App Review : Little Critter Collection # 1

Title : Little Critter Collection # 1

Author : Mercer Mayer

My kids have always enjoyed reading the Little Critter books and I was thrilled to see these picture books on the hand held devices too. This omBook application offers a set of 10 small books. Each of these books is a wonderful reading and visual experience for the young readers. I find Little Critter books very similar to  Berenstein Bear books and Arthur book series in which a small subtle message is packed in an interesting story from the lives of some lovable and endearing characters.

The narrator's voice and rendition is so captivating that you feel like watching more and more of Little Critter. The sound effects are beautifully incorporated in the stories.

Like the other omBooks, the images have naming words associated with them which pop up on tapping them.

Little Critter - All by Myself

In this sweet simple book, Little Critter is excited to be a responsible person and not a child anymore. He is happy that he is able to do many things on his own though not always in the perfect manner. For instance he tries to tie his shoe laces but by mistake ties the two laces together, he tries to pour his own juice but spills a little on the floor and many such things. But the point that comes across beautifully is that he is making a sincere effort and that is commendable.

I Just forgot

In this book, some of those things are pointed out which every child finds hard to remember - putting the toys away, turning the tap off and many more such things. But here again Little Critter is trying his best to accomplish all these tasks but somehow some things just slip out of his mind though his intentions are not to do so. The lovable Little Critter makes this story so much relatable to every little child.

When I Get Bigger

I guess every little child wants to get bigger sooner than later and more so when they see adults exercising so much of freedom and control over so many things. The adult world looks very enticing for young minds who are unaware of the struggles and challenges of that phase. Likewise Little Critter is just waiting to get bigger as soon as possible so that he could go to the store on his own, watch late night movies, own a two-wheeler and many other things which catch his fancy. He can’t wait to get bigger.

Just Me and My Mom

Little Critter takes a trip to the city with her mom and they visit a museum there but it is hard to have an uneventful day in Critter's life so first he loses the train tickets, picks up dinosaur's egg in the museum and ends up having much more adventure and excitement than a regular visit brings. But despite all these, he enjoys the day out with his mother thoroughly and peacefully goes off to sleep in the train while returning home.

The New Baby

Little Critter is super excited to have a new baby sister and he wants to be a good big brother but he fails to understand why the baby keeps crying even when he tells her his best jokes or makes funny faces. But slowly he finds out what all he can do with the new baby to amuse her and entertain her.

Just Grandma and Me

Little Critter gets to spend a day at the beach with his grandma. He tries to help grandma in his own innocent and funny way. When his grandma's hotdog falls in the sand, he washes the hotdog with ocean water and offers help to blow up his own inflatable sea horse. It turns out to be a fun day with grandma in the summer.

The New Potty

A perfect book to read to the children who are undergoing potty training. In this book, Little Critter's sister is learning to use her brand new potty. She does not like sitting on it but when her brother shows her how to sit on the potty, she willingly follows him. She reads and watches TV while sitting on the potty and makes her dolls sit on it and slowly even learns to use the potty at the right time to avoid any spills on the floor.

Just For You

Little Critter really wants to do something just for his mom so he tries doing some chores for which he is still very little. While carrying the groceries, he drops them in the driveway and when he tries to take bath on his own, he splashes too much. But there is still one thing which he can do just for his mom and he can not go wrong in that and that is giving her a big hug and a kiss. Little Critter comes across as a very sensitive and thoughtful  person.

Me Too

Little Critter is facing the challenge of managing her little sister who wants to do exactly the same things as he does and tags along everywhere he goes. Very patiently Little Critter listens to her 'Me too's , lets her play in his games, agrees to let her in his secret hiding place in the tree house and even shares the last piece of cake with her. And one day Little Critter realizes that it does help to share things with the siblings because the same behavior comes back too.

I Was So Mad

Little Critter is finding it hard to understand the ways of the elders because he is not getting to do anything that he wishes to do. All he hears them say is - No, you can’t do. It is interesting to read how he manages his anger and finds some fun activities to do.

There are three ways to read the books - Read to Me, Read it Myself and Auto Play and the readers can switch between the stories through the main menu.

App Review : Oh Say Can You Say Di-no-saur?

Title : Oh Say Can You Say Di-no-saur?

(The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library)

Publisher : Oceanhouse Media

Available on : Apple Store

The Cat in the Hat's learning library aims at introducing the interesting natural concepts of world around us to the young readers by making education entertaining. In line with this objective, this is another offering in digital format by Oceanhouse Media with two options - Read to Me and Read Aloud.

The book has Sally and Dick, hidden messages held by Thing One and Thing Two, and the favourite Cat in the Hat as the tour guide who likes to call himself - Cat-in-the-hat-saurus. The Cat in the Hat takes Dick and Sally to a trip millions of years back in time when enormous lizards ruled over earth and the fossils of these fascinating creatures form an interesting research topic. They then go to the Super Dino Museum to learn more about various Dinosaurs who roamed on the face of Earth during prehistoric period.

It begins with a brief introduction about the Dinosaurs followed by going into specifics of some dinosaurs. The readers are helped along in correctly pronouncing the names of these dinosaurs by breaking the words into smaller fragments. This is not all, a small lesson is taught on paleontology too - what are fossils, where are these fossils found, how are they then put together like puzzle pieces to create the whole structures. These skeletons are now displayed in the museums for all to see and learn how these enormous creatures looked like.

Application features like - more information popping up on tapping Dino names, words getting highlighted as they are spoken out, tap on the images leading to naming words, touch-to-hear text and bold words leading to a little more detail, along with beautiful background score and sound effects, make it a great reading and interactive experience.

Children will enjoy the well acquainted characters and style of Dr. Seuss in new avatar. A great way to introduce the fascinating dinosaur world to young children. The zany illustrations and rhyming text are totally signature style of Dr. Seuss and are retained in exact same form.

This application has a slight variation in navigating from one page to another. Unlike the previous one, this has an arrow in the bottom right corner instead of swiping option. The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library is surely doing a great service by making these informative books available on the hand held devices too.

App Review : If I Ran The Zoo

App Title : If I Ran The Zoo - Dr. Seuss

Publisher : Oceanhouse Media Inc.

Avaliable in : Android Market, Apple Store

I got this Mobile Application to review on any of the Apple Devices and I ran it on iPad. But this application is available for Android devices too.

The application opens with the main page offering three options - Read to Me (page turn requires user's swipe), Read it Myself (no voice), Auto Play (automated page turns)

Tap option on the images speaks out the name of the things or the characters that are tapped on. Two tap options are available for the text part : Tapping anywhere on the text repeats the sentence and tapping and holding the text repeats the whole paragraph once again.

"If I Ran the Zoo" is the story of a little boy - Gerald McGrew who is on a visit to a zoo but he is not excited to see the same old-fashioned lions and tigers there and he decides to bring some changes in the zoo if he gets to run the zoo.

To start with he would let the animals out of their confinements and then he would begin his search for some rare and unusual animals from different parts of the world. Perhaps a ten-footed lion, hens roosting on the topknots of other hens, strange bugs who would have propeller for rising high, an Elephant cat or weirdest animal families would be some as part of his new Zoo - the McGrew Zoo.

To catch such distinct animals, he would travel to those nooks and corners on the Earth which are not even in the geography books, he would even build a machine 'Bad-Animal-Catching-Machine' to catch ugly and vicious animals, he would arrange for special treats for his animals and his zoo would keep growing and growing. This zoo - McGrew Zoo would be one of its kind, really a Wonder, even better than Noah's Ark.

Dr. Seuss in his inimitable style lends his signature wackiness to the story through his made-up words, non-existent creatures and whimsical illustrations. I really liked the no-bars imagination of the central character McGrew and through this the subtle message of Dr. Seuss that thinking big and thinking large have no price tags on them.

A very interesting and funny book for young readers and I must compliment the Oceanhouse Media for extending the reach of Dr. Seuss's books to even wider audience.

However, I found a very small thing amiss in the application. While reading the book through 'Auto Play' option, I did not find any tab which could lead me to the main page again. I had to use the button of the device for the same.