Picture Book Apps

Recently I was in a workshop where a small portion of the time was dedicated to picture book apps. One of the questions asked to the speaker was "where do you find good apps and how do you know they are good?"  On Horn Book's blog, I came across an article which offers 8 criteria for a quality picture book app and a few recommendations. The criteria are:
 
- Is interactive but not too interactive 
- Creates meaningful counterpoint between all parts of the app 
- Makes use of the drama of turning the page 
- Puts users in charge 
- Is easy to navigate 
- Provides a joyful and surprising experience 
- Withstands repeated use 
- Adds to or extends the original story.


One app I explored was Oliver Jeffers, Heart and the Bottle.  This is one of the best picture book apps I have seen.  It takes a beautiful heartfelt story and truly brings it to life.  I highly recommend this to teachers, parents and teacher-librarians. 

I then found a follow up: a look in to the process of creating a picture book app.  Personally, based on the criteria from Horn Book, I do not find the featured app particularly appealing but it is interesting to learn about the process.

For reviews on book apps, I have been following Digital Storytime which reviews apps for children's books, and Smart Apps for Kids where a Dad reviews apps, with his kids, and posts recommendations and a daily free app. I like this site and am feeling very advanced for being one of the first RSS subscribers.