PicPocket Books: Sea Creatures (for iPhone & iPod Touch)
Sadly, I don’t have an iPhone. I know. So sad.
We get a lot of pitches from people wanting us to review apps for kids & parents, and we’ve always felt a little bad about ignoring them but there wasn’t much we could do about it. In light of that, I’d like to welcome T.O.P.’s newest team member & techie extraordinaire, Jon, with his first review. Welcome Jon, and thanks for helping out!
Just as the name suggests, this application is a short book about Sea Creatures, available from the Apple iTunes App Store. It’ll run you $0.99, and is rated 4+ (so pretty much anyone will be fine viewing the contents) PicPocket lists the age range as 2 to 6, and I’d agree with that. The easiest way to explain this app is to call it an illustrated audio book. I clocked the total play time at 90 seconds.
Sometimes it’s hard for a parent to really get a feel for whether something will be interesting for their kids, or not. I loaded up PicPocket Books: Sea Creatures onto my iPhone and thought to myself “I just don’t see this holding their attention”. Maybe I am more mature than a 5-year-old afterall.
The first test was my three year old. We live on the west coast, and are pretty familiar with ocean life, so Sea Creatures was actually neat for him and something he could relate to. The illustrations in the book are really vibrant and the words are read back at a good pace. He sat through the entire reading and then asked me to put it on again (always a good sign). The second time through, he started tapping on the screen which brings up a set of on-screen controls for pausing and skipping ahead in the book. It interrupted the flow, and sort of confused him, but I was able to help him out and get back on track.
Next up was my five year old. Like his brother, he sat through an entire reading and asked me a number of questions. He wanted to know why we see jellyfish where we live, but not all of the other animals illustrated in the book. A great question that led us to talk about differences in water temperature and habitats, and I reminded him that we saw a number of similar fish at the Vancouver Aquarium on our last visit.
Overall, this proved to be a great app for killing a short amount of time. There really isn’t any interactivity to speak of, and personally I get bored of the same 90 second story over and over again: but I’m really not the target audience on this one.
PicPocket Books offer a number of other stories in the App Store if your kids aren’t into the ocean. In fact, I’d buy “Big Rigs” right now, but then I would probably have trouble getting my phone back from the boys.
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The amazing Jonathan Lane is the founder of Industry Interactive and Discover Gulf Islands, . He blogs at Flying Troll and tweets here. He has worked with my brilliant & incredibly hot husband and according to him, Jon is one of the nicest and smartest guys you’d ever care to meet. My husband is a damn good judge of character, so there you go.
Win it! PicPocket Books is giving one T.O.P. reader their choice of book. To enter, choose your fave and comment here before noon mst on December 11, 2009.
CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED
December 4th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Interesting It’s great that the book sparked conversation between you and your sons. For $0.99 sense, it sounds like a solid purchase.
I get what you’re saying about boredom, though. Sometimes I get tired of reading the same children’s books over and over (they love repetition!). Does it help that it’s an audio book, so your kids can listen to the books as many times as they want by themselves? Like you said, if the target audience likes it, it seems like the company has done a good job.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I am the developer of Picpocket Books. Thanks for covering our iPhone app.
I think it is wonderful that the iPhone picture book app sparked a conversation about sea creatures and their habitats between you and your son. What an astute question he posed! We created PicPocket Books in the hopes that parents and kids would turn to a book rather than a video game when they want to fill a few moments of waiting or down-time when on the go. In addition to wanting to promote reading and sharing stories whenever possible, our ideal outcome is to encourage kids to be curious and engaged with the world and people around them. Sounds like that is exactly what happened!
I can understand that the “board book” style format of the Sea Creatures app may seem “short” and “boring” to an adult, especially after multiple runs. For very young children, however, simple phrases and repetition can mean fun and accessible – not boring!
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December 4th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
I’m eyeing Big Rigs as well! I’m a PicPocket Books customer and have downloaded two of their titles: What a Pest, and My Friend Isabelle, for my two girls ages 4 & 6. I’m also interested in the Sea Creatures book because we love visiting aquariums so I think the subject will be interesting to them.
The point that you make about having a discussion about where the sea animals live is what excites me the most about apps like this…they are books whose topics spur interaction between parents and kids. When my child is so engrossed that I can’t actually get my phone back, well, that’s when I have a problem. But when the app is a springboard for discussion, that’s when the technology feels the most right to me, as a parent.
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December 5th, 2009 at 12:04 am
My favorite would be the Sea Creatures. My kids love them so this would be a success. I have to admit there’s a lot to choose from, great selection.
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