Berenstain Bears' Bedtime Battle, The

$2.99, iPhone, iPad*, Android

Teaches: reading

CTR Rating: 94%

CTR Review

This is the first of the Berenstain Bears to be adapted for multi-touch tablets by Oceanhouse Media. In the 33 screen story, it's bedtime for Brother Bear and Sister Bear, but they have other plans such as playing with dinosaurs, having a tea party and getting a piggyback ride from Papa Bear. When Papa Bear announces that it's bedtime, the bedtime battle begins. Features include Auto Play, which plays like a movie by automatically reading and turning pages; Read To Me, which allows children to listen to the narrated story with words highlighted as they are read; and Read It Myself, which lets children read the book in its traditional format. Other features include original artwork, the option to touch any word to have it spoken, word highlighting, audio narration and scene-by-scene custom background audio. If you hold your finger over a paragraph, the entire block of text is read fluently. In addition, words zoom up when pictures are touched, following the tried-and-true Oceanhouse Media format. All in all, this app does a good job of not getting in the way of a the charm of the original story and illustrations, while supporting an early reader.