Endless Alphabet (Originator Inc.) ©2013

Alphabet Animals: A Slide-And-Peek Adventure. Suse MacDonald. (Auryn). 2013. iOS, requires 5.0 or higher. Download via the StoriesAlive app. Free until 2/15/14.

PreS-Gr 1 –Fans of Suse MacDonald’s Caldecott Honor title, Alphabatics (S & S, 1986), will enjoy this app which highlights a succession of expressive creatures set against boldly colored backgrounds, each representing a letter of the alphabet. Each screen features an animal posed in a way that corresponds to the letter it begins with. For example, a rotund orangutan becomes an “O,” and the horns of a yak form the arms of the letter “Y.” Sliding out a pull-tab on the edge of an image animates the animal; on “H,” the horse lifts its tail and a leg. Friendly voices identify the individual animals and letters when tapped. Sliding the cards back into place returns the critters to their original positions. As the cards shift, so do the eyes of the creatures. An added feature lets users create framed animal pictographs (confetti flies when complete), which can be emailed or saved in a photo album.

Navigation is intuitive, allowing children to explore the app on their own; a catchy tune can be switched on or off with a tap to an icon that appears on each page.The app’s colorful graphics and simplicity are sure to charm both children and adults, with the benefit of pull-tabs that won’t be damaged with repeated use.–Kari Allen, National Writing Project in New Hampshire

Endless Alphabet (Originator, Inc.) 2013. iOS, requires 5.0 or later. Version 1.6. $5.99. Android, requires 2.3.3 and up. Version 1.2.0. $4.99.

PreS-Gr 1 –This playful letter-matching, speech-developing app opens with a parade of colorful, Pokemon-like creatures dancing across the screen. The host, a horned blue monster, then settles into place with his mouth open to reveal a carousel of 59 alphabetically arranged cards, each one featuring a word and one or more characters ready to frolic (word selection is regularly updated).

Clicking on a card scatters its letters across the screen as a stampede of creatures tears across the display. Letter-shaped spaces are left behind, and users drag the colorful letters to their correct spots to move to the next challenge, providing an easy and enjoyable way to boost letter-recognition skills. Audio assistance is provided by the letters springing to wiggly life as they are dragged, insistently emitting “their” sound. Dragging the “y” of yawn, for example, starts a creature yelling, “yuh-yuh-yuh,” which halts when it is placed correctly (users hear a sad “uh uh” if the letter is brought to the wrong place). Upon success, the word jumps around in celebration and a little monster acts it out (lying down and doing an exaggerated yawn, for example), while a voice recites its definition, a recitation that can be activated at any time by pressing a small “word” button. This creative offering will be popular with preschoolers generally, but its boisterous audio feature will be particularly useful with children in speech therapy who need a boost to get them talking or speaking more clearly.–Henrietta Thornton-Verma, Library Journal

The Consitution. (Kids Discover) 2013. iOS, requires 5.0 or later. Version 1.0. $3.99.

Gr 4-8 –Kids Discover continues to engineer their award-winning print magazines into well-designed apps. This one provides history aficionados with a thorough introduction to the idiosyncratic state politics leading up to the drafting of the Constitution. Also highlighted are the role of James Madison and his Virginia plan in instigating not only a revision of the Articles of Confederation, but a drafting of a new document. One of the outstanding interactive features of the app is an historical map of U.S. expansion. Upon tapping a year, the states fly into a map, giving viewers an animated experience of the growing territories, underlying the need for a central government despite well-founded fears.

The content–a mixture of live video, cartoon drawings, animation, sliding captions, question-and-answer flip-cards, scrolling introductory text, and a virtual tour of the Supreme Court–will keep youngsters engaged. Most of the information is in paragraph-length captions to photos, archival images, or well-rendered watercolors. The succinct descriptions of the amendments will be useful in the classroom, as will the discussion of ratification, judicial review, and the debate between originalists, and those who deem the document as “living,” flexible enough to respond to unforeseen social and technological changes. The recent refusal to hear a case regarding surveillance as unconstitutional is a timely example of judicial review. The “Constitution gone Crazy” game where viewers swipe selected red words of the Preamble until they get the right one is like a multiple choice mad-lib game and not to be missed. For more in-depth information, consider some of the free, text-heavy apps that cover aspects such as Constitution and Federalist Papers (Multieducator Inc.; in-app purchases).–Sara Lissa Paulson, PS 347—“47.” The American Sign Language & English Lower School