Bottom Line: Terrific, with a tremendous surprise for anyone who follows baseball, which I do obsessively. $4.99 may be a tad too expensive for most readers, however.
The classic story has now been captured by developer Jumping Pages for the iPad in David and Goliath (The MVP Edition.) The subtitle "MVP Edition" isn't an empty moniker, either.
The app is outstanding with fantastic, vibrant animations and images. (You can click on the photo above to see it enlarged.) There are some great interactions as well, including a terrific page where the reader touches on warriors set to attack Goliath and they run towards him and then run away screaming, and my daughter's personal favorite, assisting David in crowd-surfing after his victory. I hope I didn't ruin the story for anyone just then...
And here's where the app earns the MVP in the title. The story is narrated by Major League Baseball player David Eckstein, who defied all odds (not unlike the David in the app) to become a very successful professional athlete despite being just 5-foot-7 and hearing a lot of people tell him he was too small all his life. Eckstein was named the MVP of the 2006 World Series, which is certainly the MLB equivalent of David's triumph over Goliath...although it would have been more apropos if he and the Cardinals had defeated the Yankees.
There is a message at the end of the app by Eckstein's wife Ashley, who is an actress, about her husband's journey to success in baseball at the highest level. I faced a similar uphill size-based challenge in my baseball career but couldn't make it off the bench in high school because I was also terrible.
On the downside, the app is a bit too expensive at $4.99. I use Green Eggs and Ham as my barometer for ebook pricing...If it's more than Sam I Am ($3.99), then it's too expensive. Also, there is no option for the words to be highlighted when read or read when touched for learning reading.
I like the app a lot and my kids REALLY enjoyed the story. E, who is small for his age, was thrilled at watching the outcome and Lily, who probably didn't understand more than half of the text as it was read, also was head-on-my-shoulder attentive. (If Lily holds still, that's a good sign.)
The story is written on a 6-8 year reading level and preschoolers will definitely need some help understanding parts of it, but any kid at any age gets the idea when someone faces down a bully.
If it's important to you to include Bible stories as part of your child's education/development and you can spend the $4.99, the app is a must-download.
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If you would like to purchase David and Goliath for the iPad (The MVP Edition) please use the links provided. The cost is the same, but Smart Apps receives a small percentage. Thanks for your support!
iPad/iPhone ($4.99): U.S. Canada U.K. Australia
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Posted by: Chris Davis | 11/19/2011 at 10:07 AM
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Posted by: Chris Davis | 11/19/2011 at 10:09 AM
Same here. The World sucks, and then you blog.
The end.
Posted by: tablet computer android | 09/28/2012 at 01:09 AM