For beginning readers, children’s books featuring bright colors and rhyming verse can be an effective way to set them on the way to literacy. So it is with the popular Pretend and Play book series, and now Silver Dolphin Books, the line’s publisher, has teamed up with Skyreader Media Inc. to take these titles into the digital space. The resulting apps present stories that are every bit as bright and colorful as the originals. However, these iPad-specific e-versions also feature animation, a narrator who reads the stories aloud, and in the case of Pretend and Play: On the Farm—which I focused on in particular—built-in games for an especially interactive experience.
Just like the original children’s book, the Pretend and Play: On the Farm app takes aspiring readers on a tour of Farmer Jack’s farm, which has all manner of animals including cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens. By using the touchscreen, young readers can make the animals produce the noises commonly associated with them: oinks, moo, etc. However, they are also accompanied by animations—mostly nodding, blinking, and smiling, and at one point a sheep leaps back and forth hilariously. Certain pages also have the aforementioned built-in games, which invite counting animals by tapping the touchscreen or choosing the one that completes the picture; the latter unlocks additional animations.
Silver Dolphins’ new apps successfully blend mobile technology with traditional methods of encouraging literacy, in a manner that many young readers (and their parents) will hopefully find to be farm-fresh.
