I was fortunate enough to get a free iPad this past week and it’s been a lot of fun figuring out what I like the most as far as apps and such. One of my favorite discoveries has been using it to read books to my kids. My kids are aged 7, 5, 3 and 1 so this list is with them in mind. I’ll attempt to update this as we read more.
- Stick Dog Wants a Hamburger –
My kids LOVED this book. They laughed throughout the whole thing. Much of that is due to the fact that the poodle in the story is name Poo-Poo, which they found hilarious. The author is very good at making fun of him/herself and going off on comical tangents. The big mystery on this book? The author. In the iTunes Store it says it’s written and illustrated by Tom Watson. If you search for the book online, however, it shows Melissa Phillips. Hmmm. I’m gonna go with Melissa Phillips, though, because she has a sequel – Stick Dog Wants a Frankfurter. That one’s not in the iTunes library but it is available for free here after you register. UPDATE: Thanks to this blog post, I’ve actually been in contact with the author of the two Stick Dog books, Tom Watson. He used a pen name on one of his sites, BigDifBooks.com, which is a great place to get your work out there if you don’t want to jump through all of the typical publishing hoops. So Tom Watson it is. His second Stick Dog book, Stick Dog Wants a Frankfurter was hilarious and is now available in the iTunes book store for $1.99. Also, Tom Watson has a new book called “When Cows Fly”, another good read available for free in the iTunes book store. Thanks, Tom!
- Teddy’s Day –
This one is an actual app – it’s an interactive story that is ready by a child with a very cute voice and you is lightly animated. Teddy’s Day is aimed more toward smaller children but my 7 year old enjoyed it, too. - Winnie the Pooh –
This one is a long one – 257 pages. It goes pretty quickly when you just read a chapter or so at a time. It’s illustrated like an old version of the current day Winnie the Pooh, but only because it is exactly that. The original copyright is 1926 but it still captures my kids’ imaginations.
Sorry for the very short list but that’s all we’ve had time to get to so far. More to come, hopefully. If you have any additions to the list, please comment and fill us in!
Thanks,
Nils