Bizzy Bear Builds a House
© 2012 Nosy Crow
This second addition to the Bizzy Bear series has some design problems, despite excellent graphics, a good theme and outstanding Nosy-Crow-style child narration. Based on the Candlewick book by Benji Davies, Bizzy Bear Builds a House takes place at Sunny Farm. You help Bizzy Bear construct a new house by following a sequence of events that are spoon fed to you on seven screens, by way of blue dots that appear on the graphics. The jobs include operating the "digger," (British for backhoe), loading bricks, starting a concrete mixer and moving a "load lifter" (lift truck). The digger doesn't actually "dig" when you touch the shovel, however, reducing your interest in playing with the items in the story. Each page comes with a looping reminder system that is unnecessary. As with other Nosy Crow apps, clever lines of highlighted narration can be triggered by touching items on the screen. Features include text highlighting, both Read and Play mode or Read by Myself modes, with no narration, and the ability to choose from three leveled text options, to match a child's reading ability.
$3.99, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Teaches: reading, cause and effect
CTR Rating: 78%