Overview
In Olivia Dreams: An Interactive Storybook, kids join the famous pig of literary fame in exploring four adventures that fill Olivia's dreams. They listen to four original stories about Olivia staging a play, winning a gold medal, rescuing Amelia Earhart, and visiting the beach. For each story, listeners choose between the ?day? dream for upbeat music and theatrical narration or the ?night? dream for more relaxing narration and music. Be sure to find the interactive game at the end of each story to play and dream along with Olivia.
How to Dream
Kids select which story they'd like to read and decide on the day or night version. Then, they tap to turn the page to go forward or back or return to the home screen. In the activities at the end of the story, kids help Olivia dress up in just right costume for a photo for her play, skate and spin on the ice, fly through the air to find Amelia, or write in the sand and watch the waves wash away the message.
What Makes This App Good?
Olivia is a strong, smart female character with a strong imagination, a lot of courage and confidence, and a positive attitude with her friends and family. The narration makes it easy for kids of all ages to listen or read along, although the text does not highlight along with the narration. The pages are lightly animated, without specific hotspots. Touching the screen creates an effect, such as musical notes, but nothing more. The interactivity comes in the games at the end of the stories.
The app features outstanding minimalist graphics, the trademark of found in all Olivia books. The daytime versions in Olivia: Dreams are funny and engaging, and the nighttime versions, accompanied with quieter music, make perfect bedtime stories. These books might even encourage your little ones to go to sleep so they can have dreams of their own! The stories will certainly encourage your children to use their imaginations like Olivia.
Best For
Olivia Dreams: An Interactive Storybook is best for kids who need some quiet time before naptime or bedtime. To help kids get the most out of the stories, ask them to make their own stories about their dreams. Since Olivia's stories have a subtle dream-like quality, similar to Where the Wild Things Are, you can also talk about the difference between dreams and reality. This app is also a good one to read with little girls, because Olivia is such a positive role model in how she approaches life.
This Olivia Dreams: An Interactive Storybook app review was written by Liz K. McKinney.
All tech products are judged on a five star scale by looking at the following factors: fun, education, ease of use, value, and technical.
