Thumbelina:3D Popup Book. Educational & fun audio book app with ‘popup’ pages for children
by Paul Wilks
Nov 22, 2012 10:39 AM –
Install
Thumbelina:3D Popup Book is a educational and fun reading application for children. In addition to the story text you get a variety of ‘popup’ elements to the app where children can interact with the story, perform small tasks and help the main character throughout the narrative. It’s a fun twist on the standard audio book/educational reader format that engages children far more.
Price: $0.99
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Fun for kids to read and play!
- Plenty of activities!
- Great interface!
Cons
- The automated reading style doesn’t sound particularly natural.
Features:
Perhaps everyone remembers their childhood and remembers popup books with an element of fondness. Even the laziest reader can appreciate how such books can make stories come to life and become more interactive, especially compared to mere text on a page. Thumbelina:3D Popup Book is essentially a virtual popup book that makes this experience digital (and removes the ever-present threat of tearing).
So, like many of these educational reading books you can choose to read it yourself or be read to by the in-app audio reader. If I’m honest I found the spoken dialogue a little unnatural but this aside it has to be said that the story is read at a nice pace and is easy to understand. You can choose to skip forward or backwards in the story if you want to by pressing the arrows at the bottom of the screen. Each page is either one of pure text or a popup page. On these pages you have to complete small tasks to help Thumbelina- there’s even a mini-game of whack-a-mole to play later in the story.
If this all feels a little familiar, we reviewed Puss in Boots: 3D Popup Book a number of weeks ago and this app is by the same developer. The app is fun for young kids to use but, in my experience, at the age of about 6/7 they get bored of the app quickly. If, however, you’ve got younger children learning to read, this is a cool way to get them reading and interacting with technology in a positive way. The app is easy to use and fun to play with.
Watch on Mobile
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Nicely animated graphics
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Lots of little tasks to move the story forward
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Interactive tasks with each popup
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Lots of popup pages to explore (1)
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Lots of popup pages to explore (2)
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Lots of popup pages to explore (3)
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Lots of popup pages to explore (4)
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Once upon a time
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Normal reading pages
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Thumbelina Popup Book – End of book
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Thumbelina Popup Book – Menu
Usefulness:
If you are helping your child to read, this is a fun tool to use. Alongside the reading element of the app- it is a story after all- there are fun interactive tasks to complete. These including finding or collecting things on the page to a little whack-a-mole-style game towards the end. This not only brings the story to life but makes it more interesting for children.
Ease of Use:
It’s designed for children so it’s irreducibly easy to use. Navigational tabs are clear and well placed so moving backwards and forwards is very simple.
Frequently Used:
I’m not sure if this is something that you would read over and over and over, but certainly an app you could use from time to time to compliment other reading materials.
Interface:
The visual element of the app is of very high standard and the animation and interactive graphics are superb.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Apps,
Android Apps for Children,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Audiobooks,
Books,
Educational,
Interactive,
Kids Android Apps,
Popup,
Puss in Boots,
Reading,
Thumbelina:3D Popup Book
Categorised in: Books & Reference
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