Books

A Cautionary Tail: an Entertaining iPad Storybook

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A Cautionary Tail iPad storybook app

A Cautionary Tail is a new iPad storybook app based on an award-winning animated short film of the same name. It’s a good story and has been beautifully adapted for the iPad.

Here’s a little slice of its App Store intro:

A Cautionary Tail is a dark, funny fable about a girl born with a tail, that combines cinematic 3D animation, narration by David Wenham, delightful interactive features and an important message about self-acceptance.

My 10 year old daughter and I read the storybook together yesterday evening, and both of us were very impressed with it.

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Daddy Takes a Business Trip: iPad Storybook Hand Painted on an iPad

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Daddy Takes a Business Trip iPad App

Daddy Takes a Business Trip is a new iPad storybook app that was hand painted on an iPad.

I have a 9 year old daughter and we’ve been enjoying storybook apps on the iPad for years now. So I’m always on the lookout for interesting new titles for us to enjoy. Although this book is aimed at a lower age group, the fact that it was illustrated entirely on an iPad was enough to get me interested in taking a look.

As many iPad titles of this sort do, the app lets you choose between having the story read to you, reading it yourself, or recording your own voiceover for it. The story itself has a simple and pleasant enough theme about a dad who travels a lot and really just wants to get back home to his kids.

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Moving Christmas: an Instant Favorite iPad Storybook App

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Moving Christmas iPad Storybook

Moving Christmas is a great new holiday-themed iPad storybook app. Here’s the quick plot summary for the story:

When Santa’s workshop at the North Pole falls victim to the effects of climate change, Claus and company need a hero: someone to help the village and save Christmas!

Santa chooses an unlikely partner to help him out of the disastrous situation – Frank Duffy, Mover of the Impossible. It turns out Duffy has never moved people before or done much of anything to recommend him, other than appear on The Nice List every year since his birth. Santa chooses him anyway and the race is on to get Santa and his elves and workshop and the whole operation in time to save Christmas.

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Not Recommended: BiblioBoard for iPad – Promises a Lot, Delivers Very Little

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BiblioBoard iPad app

BiblioBoard is a new iPad app released this month that promises an awful lot and, for my money, delivers very little. The iPad App Store page for the app touts it as ‘human history at your fingertips’ and goes on to introduce it like so:

BiblioBoard is a free App that gives you access to historical Anthologies that explore places, events, people and themes from across the centuries. Within BiblioBoard, there are a variety of Anthologies available for purchase. Each Anthology is a curated multimedia experience about a topic that generally includes 75+ pieces of unique historical content such as books, images, articles and historical documents, accompanied by expert commentary.
For the price of a single paperback, you get an entire curated universe of historical artifacts.

I’ve spent a good amount of time with the app over the last couple of days and I don’t think it lives up to its App Store description. In fact, I think it falls well short of doing so. I also think the In-App purchase options, which are the core content of this app, are hugely overpriced.

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Quick Look: The Very Hungry Bear iPad Storybook App

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The Very Hungry Bear iPad storybook app

The Very Hungry Bear is a new iPad storybook app released on the iPad App Store this week. My 9 year old daughter (Zoe) and I are always looking for more good storybook titles so we grabbed this one a few days ago.

Notes

Apparently this title is the second in a series featuring this bear, written and illustrated by Nick Bland. We have not read the previous title, ‘The Very Cranky Bear’, but this story is fine as a standalone book, so I don’t think we’re missing anything by diving right into this title.

Here’s a bit of the App Store intro and some of the key features for The Very Hungry Bear:

Bear returns in Australian author Nick Bland’s latest title, “The Very Hungry Bear”. He’s not so cranky any more – but this time his tummy is growling!
Go on an adventure with Bear as he tries to catch fish for dinner, and ends up finding new friends!
Read aloud and record your own audio, or choose to have the book read to you by Australian actor, Angus Sampson.

FEATURES
- Collect fish hidden throughout the book to unlock a SPECIAL SECRET interactive!!
- Beautiful illustrations and adorable animal characters
- Fun animations and sounds to find on every page
- Choose to record your own audio, or be read to!

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iPad Books for Kids: Cinderella by Nosy Crow

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Cinderella – Nosy Crow animated picture book is one of many iPad versions of the classic story of Cinderella. In fact, a search for Cinderella in the iPad App Store yields 178 results. Nosy Crow’s version has won much critical acclaim and numerous awards – here’s its App Store page intro: Created in HD especially […]

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iPad Books for Kids: Ann Can’t Sleep

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Ann Can’t Sleep is an animated iPad eBook app for children. Its story is all about companionship, friends, and a little girl who just can’t sleep – and her efforts to find the right toy to help her get off to sleep. The app is published by Light Sleepers, who describe themselves as ‘a small […]

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