Scholastic Media today unveiled some children’s storybook apps for the iPad, marking the first time the 90-year-old publisher has created an iPad app. Scholastic’s new iPad storybook apps are being branded under the name “Touch & Tilt” apps.
Scholastic’s “Touch & Tilt” iPad book applications are currently available on the iTunes App Store. There are currently three apps available: I Love You Through and Through; The Magic School Bus: Oceans; and Go, Clifford, Go!
All three storybook apps introduce age-appropriate, re-playable reading experiences that let children read and play independently on the iPad, letting them interact with the story and characters via the iPad’s touch-screen functionality.
The I Love You Through and Through iPad app is based on the like-named printed book that’s sold more than 1.8 million copies worldwide. Designed for kids 2 and up and available for $4.99 in the United States only, this app features animated interactions that make it easy for the youngest of children to engage with the story by touching the words to hear the story and then touching them again to pause; touching characters or objects to watch a fun animation and see them move; and tilting the iPad to watch the story characters lean and move, thus bringing them to life. Various options allow parents to turn off music and narration so the child can read the story on his/her own, or have the story read to them.
The Magic School Bus: Oceans iPad app is designed for kids 4 and older and available for $7.99. The app takes readers on a wild field trip with Ms. Frizzle’s class to the bottom of the ocean and takes advanced facts from the book and brings them to life so kids can manipulate variables, and see cause-and-effect in action. The “Touch and Tilt” functionality allows kids to touch the words to hear the story and then touch again to pause and touch speech bubbles to hear what characters are saying; touch characters, animals or objects to see fun animations and watch as science concepts come to life; and tilt the iPad to find underwater bubbles that grant access to 26 real photos and 11 videos of underwater animals and plant life. The app also includes one re-playable game featuring more than 20 animals with which children can play to earn points for more science facts, and to travel to other areas of the ocean
And finally, the Go, Clifford, Go! iPad storybook app, designed for kids 2 and up and available for $4.99 , combines the beloved Big Red Dog with a topic that all kids enjoy: vehicles and motion. Users play along with Clifford as he encounters trucks, trains, planes and motorcycles that go whizzing by. Kids can touch the pictures and words to hear the story and see the characters move, or tilt the iPad to make the trees sway, waves roll and characters animate. After reading the story, kids can play an action game in which they drive the vehicles featured in the story and collect bones for Clifford.
