App Review: Little Critter Collection #1 - Story About Little Critter’s Childhood

Reviewed by ElementaryTeacher

Details

For those unfamiliar, Little Critter is a series of stories written by Mercer Mayer about Little Critter’s childhood. Little Critter is a hamster character who is full of imagination, love, and of course mischief! Little Critter is a great series as children can easily identify with his adventures and emotions and also helps teachers, parents, and kids themselves be aware of emotions and how to deal with those situations.

1) In All By Myself, Little Critter, of course, wants to and does his best to do everything on his own. This book is about growing both independence as well as dependence at the same time.
2) In I Just Forgot, Little Critter often gets distracted; therefore, usually forgetting about things.
3) In When I Get Bigger, Little Critter is like any normal child as he wants to grow up fast to do many things that only big kids can do!
4) In Just Me and My Mom, Little Critter goes out with his mom and gets in trouble wherever he goes. He winds up having a fun outing with Mom as he tries to understand adult rules.
5) In The New Baby, Little Critter wants to play with his new baby sister who is uninterested in all his things. So Mom shows him what to do and soon he finds it fun to spend time with her.
6) In Just Grandma and Me, Little Critter winds up in funny situations while having a fun time at the beach with Grandma.
7) In The New Potty, Little Critter is eager to help his sister learn how to use the potty, until jealousy takes over when she gets all the attention for using the potty by herself.
In Just For You, Little Critter keeps himself busy trying to do special things for his mom. He realizes he is too little to get some of them right, but in the end finds his perfect gift for Mom.
9) In Me Too!, Little Critter’s sister loves him so much that she wants to follow in his footsteps and do everything he does. Annoyed at first, he realizes the sibling love is mutual in the end.
10) In I Was So Mad, Little Critter was so mad he couldn’t do anything fun! He wanted to help, but nothing he did was appreciated. So he wanted to leave home until he found a Mom approved activity that was fun.

There are 3 ways to read each individual story within the Oceanhouse interactive ebook collection, Little Critter Collection #1.

1) Read to Me- child turns the pages and listens to the narrated story with highlighted words
2) Read It Myself- the reader can read the book as if it were a regular book
3) Auto Play- plays like a movie, narrated story without even needing to even turn the pages.

Oceanhouse Media does a great job at combining the original text and artwork of Mercer Mayer, yet providing extras, such as touching a picture to hear and see what that picture is of. You also can replay an entire paragraph if interested. The highlighted words feature is great for early readers.

What ElementaryTeacher Liked

As an elementary school teacher, I have always enjoyed reading Mercer Mayer books in the classroom. The Little Critter books are well-thought out and have a theme that children/families can relate to. My two year old was new to Little Critter as I don’t have any board books by Mercer Mayer. She has now become very familiar with Little Critter and enjoys listening to them! Oceanhouse Media has made another great collection for teachers, parents, and young learners! So thanks to Oceanhouse Media for another great app collection in the house! I am already anticipating Little Critter Collection #2!

Overall

The interactive pages, great child narration, highlighted words, and find-the-creature mini games make Little Critter Collection #1 app to add to your ebook library! Children can identify with Little Critter’s adventures and emotions, which make this series a helpful way to teach dealing with emotions!