My daughter loves books and reading. But she also enjoys technology. I work hard to keep her screen time in check, but I also recognize that there are some benefits to giving her access to educational tools. Today we had the opportunity to check out books from a new publishing company that pairs children’s books with educational apps for kids, and encourages emerging readers to interact with books and play with text in a new way.

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Read Hear & Play: 600 First Words

This boxed set of books includes 6 books which each feature 100 words in various themes: In Your Town, On the Farm, For Fun, On the Go, At School, and In Your House. Each word featured in the book is written in a large block font, and is accompanied by a bright, colorful picture. These are great books for introducing new words to emergent readers.

The books pair with a downloadable app which offers 3 different options for interacting with the text. First, the app can read the text aloud, which helps kids with the pronunciation of each word. It also pairs each photograph with a fun sound effect, bringing the words to life for kids. The app also includes fun games for kids to play, using the images in the book. My daughter particularly enjoyed the matching game.

Mother Goose

This set of 12 small board books features beloved Mother Goose rhymes and sweet illustrations, all packaged in little books perfect for small hands. My daughter had a set of board books in a similar size when she was a baby and she adored carrying them around everywhere with her. These would easily fit into a purse or diaper bag for reading time on the go. Each book features a different rhyme, and adorable cartoon illustrations that tell the story.

These books also pair with the free downloadable app. Just like with the First Words books, the app interacts with the books in a variety of ways. The app can read the rhymes aloud, highlighting the words so emergent readers can read along with it. For very young kids, highlighting the words also teaches the concept that words come from the print on the page, which is an important pre-reading concept. The app also uses the illustrations to create fun learning games. Kids can play a memory game with the illustrations, or a matching game which encourages them to match the correct printed word with the illustration.

What We Think

My daughter really enjoyed both of these book sets. The First Words set was reminiscent of her favorite book as a baby. She loved looking at first word books and exploring the images in them. Now that she is starting to learn words and letters, these books give her a chance to explore vocabulary in a new way. She also loves the tiny books in the Mother Goose set. She likes having little books that she can carry in her purse, and she loves that the games use the same illustrations in her book.

More to Come

Little Grasshopper Books has a lot more titles coming out this year and we are excited to watch the company grow. In addition to the books shown above, they also have books that explore the alphabet and scientific concepts. They have released seek and find titles and bedtime stories as well. All of these can pair with the free app, encouraging kids to interact with the text and play along. Check out their website to learn more!

Do you use children’s books with educational apps? Share in the comments!

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