If you’re a parent, you’ve probably wondered about what sorts of tools and interactive apps are available that can help you teach your child to love reading. Well, if so, here’s an app you can’t miss. A new application called PlayTales aims to instill a love of books in pre-schoolers and early readers by offering interactive versions of books for them to enjoy.
The combination of interactivity and storytelling works well to intrigue and entertain the kids, while teaching them that reading stories can be lots of fun. It’s been developed with the help of numerous parents, teachers and willing child play-testers. Plus, it’s free, so take a closer look!
Get PlayTales Free On Most Platforms
Download your copy of PlayTales for free for the Android phone, Windows phone, iPhone or iPad. They also intend to offer a browser-based flash version in the future.
You’ll receive two free books to get you started, and there are a few titles available for free, then books will mostly cost you up to $2 from then on. You can preview demos of the “New And Noteworthy” books before deciding to buy them. If you add yourself to the PlayTales mailing list via the website, you will be entitled to another free book.
Check out their intro video to see how it works.
About The Books
At the moment, the PlayTales collection has over 40 books for kids aged between 1-8, with new stories being added weekly. The collection has all sorts of titles, ranging from traditional tales to new releases. All users of PlayTales can rate the books as they read them, helping to build the list of the most popular books available.
Books are offered in up to seven languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese.
The design and illustrations in the books are both beautiful and interesting to kids. Some books offer cartoon-like characters drawn with simple lines and big eyes, while others are drawn with a more detailed style. Each book has an original musical soundtrack added to complete the experience.
The bookshelf is enticing and allows for the option of autoplay, thus helping little kids who aren’t so great with using the controls just yet. It’s the perfect way to keep a child entertained for a short while.
When reading the books, kids can choose to read the book themselves or have it read to them. This is great for kids who aren’t quite ready to read the books alone – and even better for those who are.
Some of the books include games as part of the interactivity, such as jigsaw puzzles and colouring-in. There’s a lot of things to keep your kids interested in the story.
More Reading
Check out these articles for more fun ideas for your children:
- Preschool Online Games That Are Fun For Children
- ToddlerKeys Makes Your Windows Computer Baby Friendly!
- 5 Best Websites With Fun Activities For Toddlers
- Let The Games Begin! 5 Extremely Cute & Educational Games For Toddlers [Android]
- 5 Best Computer Games for Toddlers
- 8 Awesome Android Apps To Keep Your Kids Entertained
What do you like about the PlayTales books? What else would you like to see them do?
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Hide 6 Comments
Great article Angela. Already downloaded the application on my iPad2 to begin the adventure with my grandchildren (2 and 7 years old). It looks very interesting and instructive. I subscribed to the newsletter to keep informed and I am following on Twitter. Soon I will comment my experiences. Thank you very much for such valuable information
Thanks – I hope the kids like the stories. :D
nice..
Great find. This should go over well with the kids. Although, often having reading material on the ipad or phone results in distraction from the games and other fun things to do on them
The only negative thing about this kind of app is that there are NO multilingual versions :(
How do you mean? As in the app itself? The books themselves are available in lots of languages.