Our Verdict
I was proud of as punch when I discovered that Sesame Street had releasedThere ’s a monstrosity at the End of This Bookfor iPad . The original story , of course of study , is endearing , on par with children ’s classics likeAre You My Mother , and far better than tripe likeGoodnight Moon . twosome the Christian Bible ’s excellency withSesame Street’siOS path record ( the fantabulous Elmo ’s Monster Maker for iPhone comes to judgement ) , and there ’s no reason to assume Grover ’s monster - fear piece of music would be anything short of great on the iPad .
I ’ll include I made one cub parenting misapprehension when I first essay outThe Monster at the final stage of This Book : I told my 4 - year - old girl Anya that we had a new Grover iPad Word to read for bedtime , before I ’d taken the time to preview the app myself . She loves the mostly excellentDr . Seuss apps for iOS , and we figure that Grover ’s app would be similarly excellent .
We were wrong .
Not-So-Super Grover: A classic children’s book arrives on the iPad in the form of The Monster at the End of This Book. But unlike other iPad e-books for kids, you can’t turn pages by swiping, and you have to wait until the voice-overs and animations finish.
Not - So - Super Grover : A classic children ’s Holy Scripture get in on the iPad in the form of The Monster at the End of This Book . But unlike other iPad Es - book for kids , you ca n’t turn page by swiping , and you have to hold off until the voice - over and animations end up .
As we set forth record the book , my App Reviewer Brain started ticking off flaw . These flaws ab initio seemed minor , but they they just kept coming . You ca n’t sprain pages until the often - drawn-out animation and voice - over cultivation . You ca n’t turn varlet by swiping , the way you do in about every other Es - book app for child ; you instead need to tap a tiny target area to spark each page turn . You ca n’t swipe back a page .
There ’s a Home icon , which in reality takes you to a navigation cover that ’s meant to countenance you jump to any page in the Quran . Cleverly , the button ask two taps , so that nipper are less potential to actuate it accidentally . And indeed , the button helps you navigate the book more speedily — when it responds . Anya and I found that too ofttimes the push did n’t do anything when double - pink , particularly if the current varlet ’s animation or voiceover was still continuing . This can get rather troublesome , as I ’ll explain a bit after .
As annoyances go , those were the more minor ones . As Anya and I were treated to a truly delicious carrying out from adorable Grover , other frustrating flaw in the app became increasingly plaguey . One of the app ’s earmark feature of speech is that it light up up the words in the book as Grover reads them , helping young readers learn . Except , it doesn’t — too often , the highlights lag behind Grover ’s story , rendering them almost useless . The 1.1 update to the app slightly improves matter , but I find that sync issues remain in my examination .
Worse still , with well-nigh every varlet turn , you land on a completely blank page . As the app loads that page ’s brio , artwork , and audio , you sit staring at nothing but a white , deal - drawn book — for many seconds at a clip . Parents out there can reckon how much youngsters enjoy drawn - out , action at law - less moments like these .
Sometimes , Grover starts talking before the brio starts — and before he actually appears . Then , thing rush to capture up . It ’s jarring , even to 4 - class - old . Occasionally , Grover ’s lip gets distractingly out of sync with his interpreter .
But the worst flaw by far is the app ’s universal crashiness . Anya never got to see the dang lusus naturae at the end of the Holy Scripture , because we could n’t get that far . The app repeatedly crash at late page . And when you relaunch the app , you ask to sit through the entire covering Thomas Nelson Page animation and voiceover before you’re able to double - spigot that Home image to jump off back to where you were . When a clash interrupts your recitation prison term — and alas , I found that crashing continues even after the app ’s late bugfix outlet — sitting through that first page in its integrality is an aggravating prison term - sucking . I should be able to turn Thomas Nelson Page and use the domicile button to voyage the book at any fourth dimension . And , of course , the app should n’t crash so darn much .
There ’s a Monster at the remnant of This Book is fixable . But as is , it ’s barely worth the discounted $ 1 introductory price . Sesame Street can do better , and my kid deserves it .
