A Troop is a Group of Monkeys

$3.99, iPad

Teaches: reading, science, biology, vocabulary

CTR Rating: 75%

CTR Review

Sixteen beautiful illustrations by Pamela Baron are combined with good music, non-watered down narrative and limited interactive design in this ebook. The idea? To introduce a very specialized set of vocabulary words: plural nouns for animal groups (such as "a pride of lions" and "a parliament of owls") by way of a musical, rhyming story. The story was written by Julie Hedlund and the original music produced by Tim McCanna. Each of the animal groups responds in some way, although the page turns are not responsive, and there are interesting things on many screens that don't do anything. In addition, there is no support for emerging readers. This app is the first in a trilogy about colorful collective nouns for animals. It will also be released as a hardcover book.