This story is about a boy named Melvin who convincingly tells stories about monsters to the kids at school, and is told from the point-of-view of one of the other students. The narration and the story are both excellent, reminding me a great deal in both the style and humor of my favorite family movie, Jean Shepherd’s “The Christmas Story.” I also really like that there is a moral to this book about how to treat each other, but it is organic to the story and not at all preachy.

My 2 1/2 year old son enjoys this app, but I think I may enjoy it more than he does. There are many places in this story where I laugh out loud because it is wonderfully written. I really hope the developers come up with more stories; the quality here is as high as it gets.

I am pleased that you can use all the characters over and over again because to spell out my son’s full name, we need multiples of some letters, and this is difficult with the original toy. My son, 2.5 years, really enjoys spreading out the different pieces on the board as we work on phonics and has taken my lead, now choosing “m’s” for mom and “d’s”  for dad, telling me he is spelling these words.

It is nice that there are apps like this for parents who prefer their kids to play with traditional, battery-free toys while still embracing the new technology of the iPad. Plus, there are no pieces to lose or pick up off the floor!

Three “monster worlds” are available; Alien Monster (my favorite), Classic Monster, and Volcano. Alien Monster contains adorable sea-like alien monsters with a chime tool that shoots alien eyeballs from the craters of a planet, a decidedly cosmic keyboard sound, and monsters ranging from an anemone-shaped harpsichord of creatures to a cyclopean squid. Classic Monsters is a veritable graveyard of horror-show creatures, with a Thriller-inspired soundtrack, and a skeleton, vampire, mummy, zombie, and swamp creature. A piano keyboard consisting of spiders on a web, each with a different tone, lines the sidebar. The Volcano world pairs fiery sounds with a two-toned Volcano that sings the word “Volcano” at different pitches. More worlds are planned.

My 4-year old had a ball with it and got his 2-year old sister up and dancing to his musical stylings.

Did I mention that I love this app?

Who am I? can be played by two people or teams and is essentially an elimination game in which one party selects a face from a panel and then hands to iPhone to the opposing party, who can ask questions about the person’s appearance, including questions relating to race. “Easy” and “Hard” options are available; “Easy” includes 12 faces, “Hard” includes 24. When the correct face is selected, the face appears on a panel with “I consider myself a particular race, such as White or Asian” and the option to tap the picture to learn more. When tapped, a balloon is launched containing a quote from the individual describing his or her understanding of their own racial makeup. A person who considers themselves white may elaborate that they have Japanese, Irish, and Italian origins.

The individual quotes get at the heart of the message that the Race Awareness Project is trying to communicate: that race is fluid and easy to misinterpret. It may seem, at first blush, a bit hokey to use a computer application to address the topic of race with your children. However, the Race Awareness Project website points out:

“Research shows that even though many parents wish their kids to grow up “colorblind,” kids as young as three-years-old are actively learning about categories of race and ethnicity that they hear in everyday language. Therefore, it is critical that parents learn to responsibly talk about these issues and not leave children on their own to learn about race from the media or from others.”

The “Who Am I”? face elimination game was very fun to play with my 6-year old niece and 4-year old son, and sparked some interesting discussion about racial and gender differences that have lasted well beyond the game.

I like the fact that although you get more points for speed, there is no time limit to win the base number of points for a right answer, and if you answer wrong at first, you can keep trying. I think adding objects to the garden page is a nice motivation for girls to go back and practice their math skills.

I showed my garden to my 2.5 year old son, and he was really interested in this until he asked me to add a second pink bunny, but I could not. I wish you could just buy whatever you want with the points that you have earned. I do think that this is a fun app and a nice teaching tool that girls will enjoy using.

In Chain Reaction, the player taps on small squares to initiate a “chain reaction” which looks like a series of small bubbles. Each chain reaction garners points, Timed and free play modes are available.

In Star Chaser, squares are moved around a grid by taping the screen. The object is to collide with stars, garnering points, while avoiding red circles, which end the game. Options include Free Play, Timed mode in which a clock is continuously counts down to zero and is restored through gathering stars, and Challenge mode which challenges the user to obtain a specific amount of points. Three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Hard) are available.

In Orb Assault, the square is moved along the screen by tapping at the location where you want it to go. Four color options are available at the bottom of the screen; the user chooses a color for the square, and then must collide with the corresponding circles of the same color while avoiding circles of a different color. Three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Hard) are available.

Eight electronic songs options are available.

I found the games to be very challenging and not seem terribly responsive to my taps. My 4-year old got the hang of it much faster than I did (so what else is new?). The graphics are reminiscent of the 1980’s Atari, but this is a solid game with enough depth to engage and maintain interest.

Like Flick Fishing, Doodle Fishing engages the cast with a “flick” of the phone and a flick back to “set the hook” when a fish bites. The reel-in is a bit flimsier; instead of dialing a rotary spool, the user simply slides a bar across the bottom to control reeling speed.

The game includes an map which the player navigates around by boat, which is controlled by a small steering wheel and throttle. When a location is selected, the player taps the screen to initiate the fishing expedition.

The grapics are consistent with the other “Doodle” games; (Doodle Jump, etc.), the graphics are a pleasing palette of bright colors and hand-drawn cartoon characters.

I don’t think think Doodle Fishing exceeds Flick Fishing in quality, but it’s a pretty fun little game in its own right; further development of the map portion of the game has the potential to improve it and add a new dimension of play.

Three levels of difficulty are available (Hard, Medium, and Easy) which adapts the game for preschoolers through school-age. My 4-year old enjoyed the Easy and Medium levels, and even my 2-year old, who cannot yet recognize letters, liked to touch the pictures and delighted in the panda and the train. The game can be played in English, French, Spanish and German, which adds value to students studying other languages.

This is a cute and engaging pre-k and early reading game. I recommend.

The proportion game scatters wooden blocks of different lengths with a shake of the phone, and challenges the child to place them in the correct order, with a pleasing chime each time the pieces are moved. The counting game challenges the child to recognize the number of blocks. The number writing asks the child to trace a number “in the sand”; a scraping sound is played as the child traces. The number recognition game displays the numbers one through ten and asks the child to touch a given number The number order game plays out the number one through ten then asks the child to scatter them with a shake of the phone and re-order them

Both my 2 and 4 year old enjoyed the game. It is pricey but recommended.

This all is a great concept, but achieving good results is very difficult in practice. Pictures must have exactly the same lighting and scale to merge effectively. Getting kids to sit still long enough for an unblurred front face shot was more challenging than I had imagined.

Pretty fun, with the caveats mentioned above, I recommend.