App Review : Polar Bear Horizon

Title : Polar Bear Horizon

Author : Janet Halfmann

Illustrations by : Adrian Chesterman

Available on : Android and Apple devices

(Available at special introductory price of 99 cents )




Another offering(fifth, to be precise) by OmBooks which comes with three options - Read to Me, Read it Myself and Auto Play.

It is the story of a polar bear family which lives in the north coast of Alaska. The two cubs are born to a Polar Bear in late December when sun does not shine. But now they are restless and want to come out because spring has arrived and the den is getting warmer for the new cubs and their mother. The mother first tests the outer world by poking her head out of her snowy den and when she smells the air safe, she lets the furry cubs out.




The two cubs are trying to explore the big new world outside the confines of their den. The mother is famished and is looking out for some bearded seals or ringed seals for her hearty meal. She trains the little cubs during the first couple of years by teaching them ways to protect themselves as well as to find food at the right places. The cubs also learn to swim in the sea water.




The story educates the readers about the life cycle of polar bears, their eating habits, their hibernation patterns, their parenting style and much more. Besides talking about the Polar Bears, the narrative also introduces other four legged and winged inhabitants of this part of the world some of which form the meals of Polar Bears.




The book takes the readers to the world of the Polar Bears and their little ones and what all it takes to survive in such harsh climatic conditions. Overall an interesting story on the furry animals which live almost at the edge of our earth far away from any kind of human touch. The illustrations are gorgeous and the extra facts on Polar Bears at the end are an extra bonus.




The book application comes with these features:




1. Picture-word association
2. Clear audio narration
3. Melodious background score and other sound effects
4. Zoom option on the images




However, I would have liked if the keywords in the text were highlighted or had a little detailed explanation associated with them.

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.