Sterling Releases New Digital Books: Where is My Frog? and Little Red Riding Hood

By Juli | October 1, 2011 | No comment yet

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Sterling Children’s Books, known for publishing a wide range of content designed for children, has branched out into the digital medium with two new iPad and iPhone apps. The books, based on Mercer Mayer’s popular Little Critter series, include Where is My Frog? and Little Red Riding Hood.

Each book features word, image, and counting games to help children develop logic, perception, reading, and math skills with every activity, plus there’s a coin-collecting game that inspires kids to explore all of the features in the book in order to unlock bonus activities. Both books promise to be the first of many successful digital publications from Sterling.

Where is My Frog? is an animated tale about a Little Critter, his frog, and his dad embarking on a fishing trip. When they arrive, frog hops off, and children are encouraged to help Little Critter find Frog in every scene by searching for him and tapping interactive objects. During the search, more and more animals join in each scene, providing plenty to look at and do with every page turn.

Little Red Riding Hood is a retelling of the classic fairytale, with Little Critter starring as the main character. This is a faithful version of the story, and like most children’s versions of Little Red Riding Hood, the wicked wolf ties grandma up and hides her rather than gobbling her up. I was hoping the mouse companion in the story would stop the wolf, but instead a brave woodcutter chases the wolf away with his axe and frees Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.

Both books have a picture match game and a word match game, which is slightly harder as it gives words to match instead of pictures. I found a hidden counting game in Where is My Frog? and each book had extra features that are unlocked with coins found throughout the story. Each animation (and there are several on every page in both books) rewards a coin when it is activated for the first time.

In the books, there is the standard read to me mode, plus read to myself mode. The narration is clear with perfect enunciation and pronunciation, making the story easy to understand. Tapping the text will replay the lines on the page, and a simple swipe turns the page so even young children can use this app on their own.

The main draw of these digital stories from Sterling is the immense amount of interactivity. Every page has multiple interactions – dad fishes, the frog hops around, the flowers dance, the mouse runs around, and so on. Additionally, there are fun sounds, great animations, and cute hand drawn characters, and all of these elements result in an engrossing set of children’s books that are sure to entertain kids and adults alike.

Sterling plans to release two other books later this year, and those titles include Where’s Kitty and the classic tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.

What I liked: I thought the frog story was charming, and I know kids are going to love searching for the little guy on every page. The animations and sounds were fun, and for a simple, easy-to-read story, there’s a lot of content to go through. I also appreciated that the frog didn’t have to be found on every page to progress, so younger kids who aren’t able to locate hidden objects yet can still enjoy the story.

What I didn’t like: There are so many reiterations of Little Red Riding Hood in the App Store that I was hoping Sterling’s Little Critter version would have some unique and original content. It’s the most expensive version of Little Red Riding Hood in the App Store, and in my opinion, it is priced a bit too high.

To buy or not to buy: Compared to other similar animated books available in the App Store, these apps from Sterling are a bit pricy. I think Where is My Frog is an app worth purchasing, but I’m not so sure about Little Red Riding Hood. If your child is already a fan of the Little Critter books, then I’d say go for it, but otherwise, there are many versions of this book available in several different art styles and all for lower prices.