Digital Books about Spring

In the first ever collection app from the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library: Outside Your Door! contains 4 favourite adventures that teach kids all about nature and the great outdoors. Perfect for springtime, parents can read the titles with their kids then go outside and observe what they have learned. 

Dinosaur and Reptile Themed Digital Books

The Berenstain Bears' Dinosaur Dig digital book app is about Berenstain Bears visiting the Bearsonian Museum when a real dinosaur dig is taking place. Read the book to find out what sort of fossils they find. We can explore pictures, learn new vocabulary, and personalize the story with our own narration.

Learning about Saber-Tooth Tigers and stories from Berenstain Bears

The following two Berenstain Bear digital books teach our children good life lessons. The Berenstain Bears and the Tooth Fairy is about Sister Bear losing a tooth and gets a visit from the Tooth Fairy. She finds out that her best friend Lizzy got more money than her from the Tooth Fairy. It was neat to see and read how Mama Bear explain about the different funds Tooth Fairy gives.

Summer Digital Reads for Children

Dr. Seuss's classic The Butter Battle Book tells the tale of the Yooks and the Zooks who are in a long-running feud. The Yooks eat their bread with the butter side up, while the Zooks eat their bread with the butter side down. The two groups do not see eye to eye, so they develop more and more elaborate weaponry to outdo each other.

Digital books that children will enjoy learning from

On Beyond Bugs is an educational digital book about insects from The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library series. I recommend this fun, fact-filled app that will benefit our children.

Fun to Read Digital Books for Children

Dr. Seuss's Short Story Collection has eight classic titles all in one digital book app. Each of these stories entertain in classic Seuss style and provides timeless moral lessons for readers young and old. 

Fun with siblings and Easter digital books for children

My children enjoyed reading these two funny, interactive books that are about spending time with siblings and egg hunting.

Good Housekeeping Zinio Magazine

We really enjoy reading magazines online through Zinio, as it is convenient.  When reading it on our mobile devices there is no clutter, this for me is the biggest benefit :)  Since my family and I read a variety of magazines it is nice to not be collecting a ton of paper magazines at home.

Interactive Musical Storybook and Newspaper App for children

This new interactive musical storybook app Mibblio for iPad will be enjoyed by children as they learn to read, sing, learn and play music all at the same time.  

TIFF Kids International Film Festival 2013

This year will be the 16th annual TIFF Kids International Film Festival.  TIFF Kids 2013 features 117 films, 29 Features and 88 Shorts that represents 40 countries. 

There will be films like A Turtle’s Tale 2: Sammy’s Escape From Paradise (Belgium), Believe (UK), Buta (Azerbaijani), Cinnamon (Mexico), Elmo’s Alphabet Challenge (USA), Miffy the Movie (The Netherlands), Once in a Lullaby (USA), Rafiki (Norway), The Pee-Wee 3D: The Winter, That Changed My Life (Canada) and Waves (India) just to name a few.

The 13 short film programs will run between 50-90 minutes that cover a myriad of subjects and themes for children and youth aged 3 to 13.  Some of the titles are The Adventures of Pim & Pom: Safari, To Give a Present, Jungle Beat: Tiny Bubbles, Her Rain, Room on the Broom, My little Chicken, The Red Carpet, Children of Kabul and more.

Highlights of special events

• This year at the TIFF Kids Award ceremony will be on April 21st at 3:15pm.  There will be two brand new annual awards in the categories Best Live-Action Film and Best Animated Short Film. These two awards will be in addition to the TIFF Kids Jury Awards, TIFF Kids Audience Choice Awards, the Jump Cuts Awards and TVO Kids Choice Awards. 
• The festival lights up screens and imaginations with the best of children’s cinema from around the world. 
• Dino Dan-The Adventures of Trek will be on April 13th at 12:30pm. The premiere will be followed by Q&A with the Trek and Director. 
• The Monkey Bunch Live at TIFF Kids on April 14th at 3:30pm will have kids dancing, rushing the stage and going bananas. This will also end an educational message about the environment. 
• Wild Kratts: Rattlesnake Crystal on April 14th at 10:30am and April 21st at 11:15am. 

• The Festivals opening night film will be The Legend of Sarila (La legende de Sarila) is the first 3D Canadian animated feature.  This adventure is inspired by various Inuit legends and features the voice of Oscar-winning Christopher Plummer.  This film explores the themes of friendship, hope, perseverance and self acceptance.  Before the screening on April 12th at 5:30pm there will be free pizza, snow cones and lots of fun activities.

• We are excited that for the first time ever, Sesame Street will be coming to TIFF Bell Lightbox. During the weekend of April 20-21 there will be fun activities and a chance to meet and greet Sesame Street mascots. 

• This year’s closing night film on April 20th is the German film Famous Five 2 (Funf Freunde 2), which is an adaptation of the Enid Blyton classic.  This is the sequel to last year’s TIFF Kids Audience Award winner Famous Five.  

Hope you guys will be able to take your children and family to enjoy these fabulous events as well as check out the digiPlaySpace.

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Hats Off to Dr. Seuss and March Digital books for little ones

Happy birthday to Dr. Seuss.

This week because of Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 2nd there are sales on Dr. Seuss digital books from March 1 to 7th on the App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore, Barnes and Noble NOOK Store and Windows Store.  
Here are some reviews of wonderful Dr. Seuss books that both children and adults will enjoy reading.

Hunches in Bunches

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins 

Collection of Dr. Seuss books

Other Digital books that will benefit children are from the popular Berenstain Bears and Little Critter series.  Check out these three terrific new interactive book apps available.

The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Chores (iOS and Android, intro price of $2.99) - Papa Bear and the cubs always seem to find a reason not to do their chores. When Mama Bear decides to avoid doing her chores as well, the mess builds up ... and up ... and up!  I really enjoyed reading this book to my little ones and reminding them that everyone in the family needs to pitch in to do chores i.e. cleaning up.  Sometimes I feel just like the mama bear when the chores don't get done :) and when my children surprise me by pitching in and helping out, it makes my day.     

Just Me and My Puppy (iOS, intro price of 99 cents) - Little Critter is proud of the job he's doing taking care of his new puppy. The funny illustrations show that having a puppy is a lot of work and quite a handful! 

It was cute to read how he describes all the help his puppy did i.e being a guard dog and bringing the paper for Little Critter's dad. 

What a Bad Dream (iOS and Android, intro price of 99 cents) - Little Critter dreams that a magic potion turns him into a scary, disagreeable monster that no one wants to be around. Luckily for Little Critter, it's all just a bad dream.

The sound effects in all these stories are lots of fun to listen to while we read the stories to ourselves or read it on auto play.

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Fun digital books that children will enjoy cuddling to

These fun digital books have professional narration, background audio and enlarged artwork for each scene that children will enjoy.  Young children will like touching the pictures on iOS devices to see individual words being highlighted and read.

Dr. Seuss's Hunches in Bunches digital book shows us that it's easy to become overwhelmed by advice when we haven't made up our own mind. Sometimes the best plan is to trust our own hunches and disregard the vocal bunch of Hunches clamouring for attention.  The nonsense and cleverly crafted message in Hunches in Bunches is similar to Dr. Seuss's many other classic picture books.  My son enjoyed the fun to read rhymes and thought it was cool to read the silly words and started laughing.

The "Record and Share" feature in the book will be really enjoyed as it lets readers record their own voice and share the recording with family, friends and teachers.  

Just Shopping With Mom is about Little Critter going shopping with his family that turns into an eventful day.  While at the grocery store, his little sister becomes upset when she can't buy candy, cake, dolls, toys and many other things.  She makes a big mess by pulling items off of the shelf and then gets lost in the store. 

Little Critter's patience pays off when mom finds a fun way to end the day.  Mercer Mayer's Little Critter stories address major issues of growing up that both children and parents will enjoy reading and talking about.  

The Berenstain Bears Hug and Make Up is about the whole Bear family waking up grouchy one morning and the mood in the house is not happy.  We will find many things that happen in the story that we can easily relate to :) 

By the end of the day, the Bear family learns that sometimes laughter is all it takes to hug and make up.  

This book is recommended for children age 4 to 8.  Reading this book as made it even more exciting for us to experience watching the Berenstain bears on stage in March.

Your little ones and you will enjoy cuddling up and reading this book, The Kissing Hand.  Chester Raccoon does not want to go school, so to help ease Chester's fears, his mother shares a family secret called The Kissing Hand.  This gives Chester Raccoon reassurance of her love that he can have any time when his world feels a little scary.  

This book is a children's classic that is useful to parents and children especially at times of separation.  

My children enjoyed reading and talking about this book with me.  We agreed that we would remember the kissing hand when we are all out and about in our worlds exploring and learning, and know that our loved ones are always close to us.  
These colourful digital picture books can be read over and over as children learn to read.

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Fabulous digital books that children will enjoy

Literacy is an essential part of our life, so we can gain knowledge and awareness.  ABC Life Literacy Canada has made January 27th to be Literacy day since 1999 to raise awareness for the importance of reading and engaging in literacy related activites. 

Teaching our children the importance of literacy in a fun manner is something we can do as parents.   My children like using the iPad to read as there are features that make it interactive.  Digital books such as Little Critter, Five Little Monkeys and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins are fun books that we can purchase from iTunes.  We really enjoy the "record and share" feature of these books similar to the Dr. Seuss's collection.  

The digital book Little Critter is a fabulous book for young children as they will be able to relate with Little Critter going to the dentist.  This story is beautifully illustrated with colourful pictures to show everything that happens at the dentist such as having a checkup, cleaning, taking dental x-rays, finding a cavity and bravely getting a filling.  

This book will encourage young children to not think of the dentist visits as a scary place, rather as something that will benefit them to take care of their teeth.  

My children liked inferring their experience with Little Critter's.  After reading the book we had a conversation about taking care of our teeth so we don't have to get a filling :)

The digital book Five Little Monkeys Play Hide and Seek is about Lulu, the babysitter being in charge of the five little monkeys while their mama is out dancing.  During bedtime the monkeys persuade Lulu to play hide-and-seek and they hide in a place where their babysitter couldn't find them. 

I don't want to tell you where the monkey's hid as I don't want to spoil the fun.  Read this funny book with your little ones to find out where the monkey hid; I would have never thought to look in that place either :)  
This book will encourage children to count and play a game of hide-and-seek.

Dr. Seuss's The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins is celebrating its 75th anniversary and is available on the App Store.  

In this story, Kind Derwin of Didd demands "hats off to the King" when he passes by his citizens.  But young Bartholomew Cubbins has a problem, every time he removes his hat another hat appears atop of his head.  It is a humorous book that children six years and over will enjoy reading.  

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