Endless Alphabet App

Endless Alphabet App created by the team at Originator, Inc. Available on iTunes for iPhone and iPad. $6.99

Annotation: Imagine: words like gargantuan and ruckus being easily tossed into everyday conversation by preschoolers. How could this be? Chalk it up to the positive influence of some silly vocabulary monsters in the Endless Alphabet app.

Summary: This is a cleverly designed interactive app which introduces letter sounds, spelling, and definitions of featured words. Over fifty vocabulary words are included with the app, and these are not typical beginner words like cat or dog. Instead, preschoolers are challenged with words such as demolish and bellow. As the scattered letters of the selected word are dragged to their proper place within the word, not only do they move and wiggle, but they produce their phonetic sounds.



Once the word has been completely filled in with its letters, the friendly monsters stampede past, cheering all the while, and then an animated short plays which demonstrates the definition of the vocabulary word.




Critical Evaluation: This app has been designed to move at the pace of each individual child. Navigation is intuitive, and children will move easily from the main menu where vocabulary words are selected to the individual word modules and back again. The animated monsters are eye-catching, and their antics while defining each word are extremely entertaining. The accompanying sound effects and music are not overpowering, and add an additional level of interactivity to the app.

While the app is priced higher than other similar educational games, I believe that the complexity of the learning experience make it worth the cost. Children not only will learn to recognize each letter, but will gain experience with the phonetic sounds of each, how the letters are put together to make words, and what the words mean, and all while having fun.

Originator has also released Endless Numbers, Endless Reader, and most recently, Endless Wordplay. These apps are wonderful tools to boost a child's reading and mathematical skills while developing a love of learning.

Age or Interest Level: Ages 3 to 5

Awards: 2013 App of the Year Runner-up ; App Store's Editor's Choice

Why Included? I purchased this app for my son a couple of years ago, and he really enjoyed making the words from the squiggly talking letters. An interactive app such as Endless Alphabet that can make learning so much fun is a valuable addition to any library's collection of resources.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD)

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! ...and more stories by Mo Willems, Scholastic Storybook Treasures, 2010. 0-545-29908-X, Approximately 49 minutes on DVD. $14.95

Annotation: The pigeon, along with Trixie, Knuffle Bunny, and Leonardo the Terrible Monster leap onto the big screen and into living rooms everywhere. 

Summary: This DVD, the first volume of the Mo Willems Cartoon Collection, includes the favorite stories Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and Leonardo the Terrible Monster. The video representations of the picture books are true to the originals in both animation style and narrative. 

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! features the voices of Willems and Jon Scieszka. When the bus driver takes a break and leaves the viewer in charge, the persuasive pigeon will try anything to get behind the wheel. Knuffle Bunny is narrated by Mo Willems and his daughter, Trixie, who tell the story of a trip to the laundromat where something very important gets left behind. Leonardo, once again voiced by Willems, is terrible at being a monster and is unable to frighten anyone. Perhaps if he could find just the right little boy to scare, he could live up to his terrifying potential.

As an added bonus, the DVD also includes an interactive Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!: The You Yell Version, a Spanish language version of Knuffle Bunny, a segment featuring Mo and the Pigeon as they visit a school, and another segment where Mo talks about the stories.

Critical Evaluation: The Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD series is well-regarded for creating quality video versions of classic and popular children's picture books. The accompanying information on the case insert of this particular title indicates that the presentation "supports cooperation, early reading, and problem solving". One of the features of this series is that it includes both a module where the stories can be viewed with the narrative being read aloud, as well as a module where the text being read appears on the screen with words highlighted as they are being spoken. This can be highly beneficial for emergent readers, as it helps them begin to recognize words and letter patterns.



The Pigeon video segment is participatory by allowing children to interact and respond to the pigeon's sly strategies to drive, which helps combat the passivity of typical television viewing. Knuffle Bunny and Leonardo are both written and drawn with a child's perspective in mind, and anyone who has ever loved a favorite stuffed animal, or ever felt scared of monsters, will identify closely with these stories.

I would also recommend the second volume in this series, Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late DVD, which includes more Pigeon, Knuffle Bunny, and Naked Mole Rat fun.

Age or Interest Level: Ages 2 to 7

Awards: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Children's Video

Why Included? Mo Willems is one of my absolute favorite children's authors, and the charm and wit of his picture storybooks carries through into this video production.