Distracting Distracting (and (and Educating) Educating) the the Kids Kids
Best App for Kids’ Books, Reimagined swipe fest: You can hardly swipe a finger with-
out running into some really clever, kid-friendly touches: in traditional read-the-book mode, as each page appears, bulls-eyes flash for a second or so over tappable hotspots (stroke Ms. Spider’s brow, for example, to watch her cry).The reason? To remind where the kid can tap.
Miss Spider’s Tea Party for the iPad Free lite version | $7.99 Version: 2.2 | Callaway & Kirk
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Most kids’ books on the iPad—at least in this first wave of the Great App Store Rush—are digital snapshots of a print edition. Maybe a little new media juju’s been added (panning and zooming across pages are common tricks), but the pulp ancestry is unmistakeable. The same can’t be said for Ms. Spider: a digital confection that betrays little hint of its print origins. To call it a book is only about a quarter right. You also get a handful of other thematically related but functionally distinct mini apps. Together, it’s practically guaranteed to delight nearly any toddler susceptible to a charming tale about a friendless spider.
repetitive treats: A whole new set of animations and audible trinkets lie waiting for kids who explore the Read version (vs. the watch-only video enactment, itself a marvel of well-synced music and animation). For an audience comprised of wee tots who love watching things over and over and over, the decision to present the same story repackaged with new, hidden treats is genius.