Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
Today was my son’s last day at preschool. Next year he’ll be heading up to big school. I’m very excited about this new phase in his life, when he will start to build on his existing letter recognition and hopefully make real progress in reading. So in choosing this week’s Pick {ture Book} link, I turned to a book app which I think will really help us next year, Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! by Dr Seuss. This app already gets a lot of use in our house, because Dr Seuss’ rhymes and nonsense words are such a delight to say aloud. Try saying schlopp, snuvs, zong, rink rinker fink, jibboo or our favourite, the bloogs – so much fun. Secondly, the book’s philosophy can be summed up in the quote “Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” On each page, Dr Seuss asks children to imagine new, wonderful and wacky things. It really encourages children to use their imagination and invent new words, new animals, new places… the sky is the limit.
Oceanhouse Media has succeeded in turning the book into a great app, especially for early readers. When you press on a word or part of an illustration, the relevant word will repeat and be highlighted. Different components of every page are revealed as you read along with the text. Each new layer of the picture appears when you press on brightly coloured question marks, to advance the story. There are Read to Me, Read it Myself and Autoplay options. The narration is lively and upbeat, and the illustrations are bright and colourful. Page turning is done by swiping, which is usually easily done, although Little Miss Chatterbox, aged two, sometimes needs a little help with it. As it is a long book, one thing I would like to see added is a page menu so you can quickly flip to a certain page if needed (like when you absolutely must find a bloog, right now.) This is a small quibble though.
A really good app based on a classic picture book, and highly recommended.
Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! – Dr Seuss, developed by Oceanhouse Media, compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Available from http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/oh-thinks-you-can-think!-dr./id442839429?mt=8 priced at £2.49/$ 3.99 at time of writing.
Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! was written and illustrated by Dr Seuss, and is published in the UK by Harper Collins Children’s Books (2004 edition) ISBN-10:0007173156 ISBN-13: 978-0007173150
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