If I Ran the Horse Show

$4.99, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (OS 5.0 or later) 81.6 MB

Teaches: reading, horses, comprehension, vocabulary

CTR Rating: 94%

CTR Review

If you teach or live with a young horse nut who also is an emerging reader, or perhaps one visits your library, here's the ideal experience. This 29 screen "book app" lets you join the Cat in the Hat, as he visits a horse show and explores the horse related vocabulary that is surprisingly un-watered down. You learn horse history, anatomy and such things as how they are measured by way of highlighted images and picture highlighting. As with other Oceanhouse Media apps, you can personalize the story with your own narration, and it is easy to jump around from page to page. There are both Read to Me and Read It Myself modes; and Thing 1 and 2 both provide more information about the current illustrations. We liked the supplemental graphics and authentic horse sounds. It's nice to see Oceanhouse Media's books getting more sophisticated. Content includes everything from the difference between fillies, foals, yearlings, mares, colts, dams, sires, and stallions; to horse anatomy from nose to tail; to the work of a farrier, as well as Western vs. English riding and facts about 13 of the most popular horse breeds. There is excellent text scaffolding, making this a strong early reading experience. The background music is a bit overbearing.