iStoryTime, a publisher of children book apps, has released a new title, “How to Train Your Dragon” to coincide with this weekend’s DreamWorks’s 3-D animated movie. The “book” uses screen shots and a few character voices from the movie in a 40+ page app with optional animated page turning. Another option is that you can […]
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Quick Look: How to Train Your Dragon for iPhone

Mar 28th 2010 by

iStoryTime, a publisher of children book apps, has released a new title, “How to Train Your Dragon” to coincide with this weekend’s DreamWorks’s 3-D animated movie. The “book” uses screen shots and a few character voices from the movie in a 40+ page app with optional animated page turning. Another option is that you can listen as a narrator reads aloud the highlighted words, which is a benefit to busy parents who might need to hand their phone to their kids and feel there’s some educationally relevant experience.

According to their website:

iStoryTime brings the joy of a children’s book to the convenience of your iPhone or iPod® touch. Our books are illustrated and narrated, so your child can enjoy them even when you ‘re busy. Best of all, the app is drop-dead simple to use because it ‘s actually designed for a 2-year old.

The screen shots are stunning on the iPhone screen – the fire from the dragons appear sharp, real, and a visual delight. The highlighted, karaoke-style, reading is superior to a bouncing ball and easy to follow.



There are some improvements that could be made to the simple app, however. Although you can use the touch screen to flip pages, once it’s begun there’s no way to pause the reading – whether narrated or not. This missing option, especially for older kids reading on their own, is an obstacle since the sentences fade in and out on a single screen: if you don’t read at a prescribed speed, the words are gone.

Additionally, some of the choices in the writing might be improved. For example, my librarian-wife noticed that there are two cases where names appear that otherwise weren’t introduced (including the name of a primary character, the trained dragon Toothless!).

Nevertheless, iStoryTime’s “How to Train Your Dragon” is less expensive than a storybook from Amazon, and this app should give young ones an entertaining experience!

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“How to Train Your Dragon” is currently available for $0.99 in the App Store.

The app was provided by iStoryTime for review on Just Another iPhone Blog. For further information regarding our site ‘s review policies, please see the ‘About ‘ page.

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