The Snow Ball Digital Book Review

As a family, we are immersed in technology.   I love my iPhone, iPod, Kindle, iPad (and of course my laptop & desktop computers.)  That love is shared by all of my children.  I download more apps for them than myself, and I'm always on the lookout for fun and/or educational apps.

We recently downloaded an interactive book -- The Snow Ball, by David Steinberg and illustrated by Liz Conrad.  It's about polar bears playing in the snow, and is delightful!  Children can choose to read the book independently, or have the book read to them.  On each page, there are interactive features in the illustration that kids can touch and watch what happens.

Lydia really enjoyed the book, and has watched it multiple times on our iPad and her iPod.  She giggles at the polar bears throwing snowballs every time!

Here's a brief video of her playing with the interactive story book, The Snow Ball:



I was wondering how David Steinberg felt about this new media, and this is what he shared:

Interactive e-books will never take away from the joy of holding and reading a good old-fashioned book," said Steinberg, "but they add a whole new dimension into discovering and experiencing books.

The idea of an e-book app like 'The Snow Ball' is to give kids the chance to immerse themselves in the world of the book,  taking the time to discover all the surprises tucked away on each page.  From an educational standpoint, what an amazing way for emerging readers to navigate their own learning.  Kids can choose whether to follow along with the word highlights as the narrator reads to them, or use the read-myself mode to try it all by themselves. 

As an author, I have to say that I love having these new tools in my storytelling kit.  I'll never stop loving books, but I admit that I've grown a little crush on my iPad these days, too.

Along with the Snowball book, (retails for $1.99 in both iTunes and Android app stores) there is a fun, free Penguin game that has the kids sliding penguins around on the ice.  I synced the game to my boys' iPods, and they both noticed it and played with it.  They thought it was cute, but definitely aimed to the preschool market.

If you want to check out the book, here are the links to find it on iTunes and and the Android store.

Check out the free game at iTunes and the Android store.

Learn more about David Steinberg at his website.

*Disclosure:  I received an advance copy of the interactive book and the game, in exchange for my honest review.  No additional compensation or consideration was provided.*