App review: Who Stole The Moon? - Interactive E-Book for Children (iPhone version) - A Story of A Little Boy Named Bertie

Reviewed by Elena – I’m a SAHM who is trying to homeschool my 18 month old. I have a BA in Computer Science and Information Systems. My professional background is in quantitative analytics.

Details

This is a pleasing tale of a little boy named Bertie who is alarmed when the moon disappears on a cloudy night. He wonders who has stolen the moon. He decides to investigate the matter and discovers some nocturnal animal friends. Finally, he meets a wise animal friend who explains the mystery of the disappearing moon to him.

There are many interactive elements throughout the storybook. Children can move objects around the page, turn lights on and off, move clouds in the sky and much more. There is also a page where children are introduced to eight nocturnal animals. Tapping on each animal kids learn its name. The story can be narrated in fifteen different languages, but narration and background music can be turned off.

There are eight original english songs in this story app. Six of which can be accessed from the associated story pages, but are also available in a separate section along with two additional songs. The songs can be enjoyed with vocals or without.

The app includes four game activities for children to play with.

There are 16 picture puzzles depicting scenes from the story to choose from. Each puzzle is available in two different versions, 25 or 64 pieces. There is a timer, so kids can record their best completion times.

In the coloring activity, 16 sketches can be painted. There is a nice expansive color palette and different shaped brush tools to use. The brush tools reminded me of a stamping tool. There is an option to save the completed painting to the iPad camera roll.

The memory match game has three difficulty levels with 12, 16 and 36 cards to match. The card sets are all different. There is a timer and a counter for how many times cards are turned over, so kids can track their best efforts.

There is a firefly game where kids tap to light up as many fireflies as possible in 30 seconds. Tapping on different objects had different results. Touching a flying clock gave the player 5 more seconds. Tapping on a propeller fan made the fireflies fly around faster making them harder to catch. A sun symbol added a bonus amount to the firefly counter.

The storybook and painting activity can be enjoyed by kids of all ages. However, the puzzle, memory match and firefly game activities are better suited for kids four and older.

There are social media and other external links in the settings section and start page (home page).

What Elena Liked

The illustrations are gorgeous and the interactive elements are plentiful. The controls are fairly easy to navigate. The game activities and the songs section were very well done. I loved that the storybook could be narrated in 15 different languages. The kids loved the interactive elements and all the game activities. My daughter especially loved the songs section.

Suggested Enhancement

It would really be appreciated if karaoke highlighting were made available for this story. Highlighting words as they are spoken would help young readers follow along with the narration and the lyrics. Readers of all ages trying to learn another language would also benefit.

When saving a painted sketch to the iPad camera roll the palette and tool portion is also visible. Once exported you can crop the picture with the iPad edit tools, but it would be best if only the painted sketch were saved.