iPad Storybook Apps

 iPad Storybook Apps And The Kids Who Love Them. (NPR, 2/7/2011)

Excerpt: It's bedtime for my 3-year-old daughter, Lilly. She climbs into her little twin-size bed with Tinkerbell sheets. It's covered with dolls and stuffed animals. As she gets settled in, we choose tonight's bedtime stories.

"Do you want to read regular books or iPad?" I ask. "iPad!" is her reply.

In November, I started reviewing children's iPad apps for Kirkus Reviews.

Lilly is my review partner. We've gone through 50 apps in two months. Like much of the Apple App Store, the quality of what's available runs the gamut from crude cash-ins with ugly illustrations, barely worth their 99-cent price tag, to lavish productions with top-notch voice talent and 3-D pages. The priciest can cost up to $10.

That's nice, but even at 99 cents a pop, providing a child with all the picture books he or she cares to read is an expensive proposition.  Not to mention the need to purchase a pricey gadget.

Seems to me the public library is still everyone's best bargain.

RG @ the Middleton Public Library