Top 10 Lists
The 2012 CYBILS Literary Awards – Five iPad Book Apps to Make the Cut
For the second year in a row, I was honored to be chosen as a first round judge for Cybils, a literary award started over five years ago by book bloggers. According to the Cybils website, this award was begun to: Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators, let’s not forget them) whose [...]
My Favorite Sites: A Resource List for Finding the BEST iPad Apps for Your Kids
Since I began my review site, Digital-Storytime, two years ago I have had the privilege to meet many wonderful people in the app industry and develop collaborative relationships with some of the site owners behind the best kids app sites on the web. With 2013 being called (for the 3rd year in a row, perhaps) [...]
iPad Best of the Best – 50 Essential Children’s Book Apps (Part 4: Tweens)
Children’s book apps have been around now for over two years and we have seen a lot of wonderful titles at Digital-Storytime.com over this time. What follows is the forth and final post in a four-part series, listing the best 50 iPad books for kids, broken down by age. You can see our first list [...]
iPad Best of the Best – 50 Essential Children’s Book Apps (Part 3: Elementary School)
Children’s book apps have been around now for over two years and we have seen a lot of wonderful titles at Digital-Storytime.com over this time. What follows is the third of a four-part series, listing the best 50 iPad books for kids, broken down by age. You can see our first list (for toddlers) here: http://digitalmediadiet.com/?p=1645. [...]
iPad Best of the Best – 50 Essential Children’s Book Apps (Part 2: Preschoolers)
Children’s book apps have been around now for over two years and we have seen a lot of wonderful titles at Digital-Storytime.com over this time. What follows is the second of a four-part series, listing the best 50 iPad books for kids, broken down by age. You can see our first list (for toddlers) here: http://digitalmediadiet.com/?p=1645. [...]
iPad Best of the Best – 50 Essential Children’s Book Apps (Part 1: Toddlers)
Children’s book apps have been around now for over two years and we have seen a lot of wonderful titles at Digital-Storytime.com over this time. What follows is the first of a four-part series, listing the best 50 iPad books for kids, broken down by age. This first list is of apps that are appropriate [...]
Beyond Reading – Top 15 iPad Book Apps – The Best Extras for Summer Fun
A year ago, we presented our first ‘best extras’ list, featuring 10 apps with wonderful games that take learning AND playing to a whole new level (compared to the average book app). I am often a stickler for an emphasis on literacy and reading in book apps, but I still appreciate apps that take things [...]
Top 15 iPad Book Apps – Most Exceptional Use of Animation
Over a year ago, we began sharing our very favorite book apps from our growing collection of reviews in specialized “Top 10″ lists. This year, we are able to create each of these new lists with a much larger selection of apps to choose from … nearly 600 reviews are in our database (and in [...]
The Bedtime Story App – Our Top 25 Recommendations (Part 2)
This is a list of individual book apps, mostly from small publishers, representing our “best of the best” for bedtime reading in 2012. Some of these are lightly interactive, but done in a way that doesn’t lend itself to endless tapping (or over-stimulation). We did not include any of the apps that made our list last year, [...]
The Bedtime Story App – Our Top 25 Recommendations (Part 1)
Storytelling on the iPad can take many forms. But no story time is more sacred for most families than the bedtime story. Finding a way to settle down at nighttime can be a struggle for many children, so for generations we have held our babes close, peered at a book together and woven the magic [...]
Children’s Digital Publishing – Popular Posts from “The Digital Media Diet”
After doing more than 500 children’s book app reviews, we’re taking a quick ‘look back’ to see which posts from our blog have been read the most. We are also working on a number of “Top 25″ lists to share with you soon … refreshing our lists from last year for topics like best for bedtime, [...]
The 2011 CYBILS Literary Awards – Seven iPad Book Apps to Make the Cut
This past October, I was honored to be chosen as a first round judge for the Cybils Award, a literary award started over five years ago by book bloggers. According to the Cybils website, this award was begun to: Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators, let’s not forget them) whose books combine [...]
2011 – The Year’s Best Digital Books for Kids – 31 Five-Star iPad Apps Not to be Missed
At Digital-Storytime.com, we are celebrating our first birthday! We’d like to pay tribute to last year’s very best picture book apps for the iPad and the developers who made these reading experiences possible. For the final post in our blog, I want to highlight the 31 books to receive a perfect 5-Star review on our [...]
2011 Christmas Book Apps – Our Top 10 + Bonus: Top 5 FREE
This holiday season I have been as busy as one of Santa’s elves getting all the book apps with Christmas themes reviewed in time. In fact, I wish I had a few elves myself with so many great new titles being released. Our original top 25 has quickly become a top 50 … Reading holiday [...]
Holiday Reading – Our Top 25+ Recommendations for Children’s iPad Picture Book Apps
Seasonal and holiday picture books are an important tradition in print, so it isn’t surprising to see a flood of apps for the winter holidays this year. This list represents our top recommendations after downloading dozens of books and other holiday themed apps for kids. This is also our first time using our new database [...]
iPads in Education – How you & your iPad can volunteer together in your child’s classroom
This fall I offered to help out in my child’s Kindergarten classroom. At first I came just once a week to offer support to the teacher during their ‘literacy hour’. I began paper assessments of the basic literacy skills of the kids in class. This was time consuming but did give me some immediate information [...]
Recommended iPad Book Apps for Older & Reluctant Readers Ages 8-12
Of all the requests for recommendations I get, the most common seems to be from parents & teachers looking for book apps for children in 4-6+ grades (ages 10-12+) who are struggling with basic reading skills. “What can you recommend for my students who are in 5th grade but read at a much lower level? [...]
Enhanced Spookiness! Top 10 iPad Book Apps for Halloween
It’s time for another Top 10 list and this time I’m doing something a little different. In honor of the upcoming holiday, I’ve selected some of my favorite book apps for iPad that are tailor made for Halloween reading. Unlike previous lists, most of these apps have not been fully reviewed on our site, so [...]
Top 10 Book Apps for iPad – Most Read Reviews at http://Digital-Storytime.com
For this new top 10 list, I’ve gathered some data from our google analytics to see which of our reviews of children’s iPad book apps have been viewed the most by readers. The following apps are in order, showing off our most popular recommendations over the past year (2011): 1. The Three Little Pigs for iPad [...]
Top 10 iPad Books – Apps for Back-to-School
It’s that time of year again. Many schools are already back in session. Our local schools start right after Labor Day, and I can feel the last days of summer closing in on us. So in the back-to-school spirit, here are my favorite recommendations for book apps with a lot of educational value (from our [...]
iPad Best of the Best – 25 Essential Children’s Book Apps
Now that the iPad has been around for over a year, the selection of quality book apps is large enough to justify creating a real library of titles, especially for children’s picture book apps. And any library needs a good foundation. In place of what would have been Digital-Storytime’s 10th ‘Top 10′ list, this week [...]
Top 10 iPad Book Apps with Cross-Generational Appeal
Print picture books often keep the adult reader in mind. This is also true of children’s book apps. This top 10 list takes into consideration the kinds of things that make a book app especially engaging for readers of all ages, like familiar stories or heart-warming themes. The iPad may seem like an entirely modern [...]
Beyond Reading – Top 10 iPad Book Apps with the Best ‘Extras’
While a book app really needs a written story to qualify as a book, the ‘app’ part allows for so much more. Many book apps also contain games, puzzles and other ‘extras’, either within the pages of the book or bundled together with the app (often accessible from the title page or settings). Books like [...]
Top 10 iPad Books – Most Innovative Use of Interactivity
Interactivity in iPad books is a double-edged sword. When done well, it can enhance a picture book in magical ways. When done poorly, it can distract from the story or even become more like a video game played over ‘pages’ instead of ‘levels’. So what makes for great interactivity? Truly innovative iPad books don’t have [...]
Top 10 Most Educational iPad Books
In honor of Digital-Storytime’s recent makeover, this top ten list is a based on the books that scored high in a new category - Educational. These are all top picks for iPad books that make learning especially fun. These apps are for a wide range of ages and topics, showing off the iPad’s flexibility. It can [...]
Top 10 iPad Book Apps to Keep a Bored Kid Busy
Not all digital book apps will entertain a bored kid, especially when traveling. While I am a big fan of iPad books with subtle enhancements that don’t overwhelm the storytelling, there are times when a parent wants an iPad book app with more ‘bells & whistles’, especially when you need to keep a child engaged [...]
Top Ten Most Original iPad Books
The category of “Originality” is one that will appear and be sortable on the Digital-Storytime site by next month. In the meantime, I thought I’d put together my top 10 list of truly original, ground-breaking iPad Children’s Books. These are books that have taken the medium of the iPad and really shaken up our notions [...]
Top 10 Bedtime Books for iPad
Children’s picture books are read at lots of times of day. For instance, my son and I love to read at lunchtime (we get stuck in the car on rainy days between his two preschool programs). We also read when we’re waiting … for the doctor, the dentist or even in line at the store [...]
Top 10 Animated Books for iPad
Looking for an ANIMATED book for your new iPad 2 (or iPad 1)? The following titles all have ‘WOW!’ potential. These are our top picks from over 125 reviews at Digital-Storytime.com: (Click on the images for more information, itunes link and detailed review) 1. The Penelope Rose 2. Cozmo’s Day Off 3. The Three Little Pigs [...]
Top 10 iPad Kids Books – My Preschooler’s Favorites
My son loves books, especially iPad books. He often asks to help me review a new book and he plays a very important role. We share almost every book I review together, and my child’s ‘job’ is to help count the pages and test the book, in part to get an average amount of time a [...]
