Don't Let the Pigeon Just Do Apps!

I said I was going to look at a couple of books that were in electronic formats, so here goes. First, I downloaded Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App by Mo Willems (app by Disney, available on iTunes for $6.99) This app is based on one of Mo Willems most popular books, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. I chose this it because I think Willems is a genius, and because the app was recommended in The Horn Book magazine.  The main feature of the app is a Mad Libs-style story where the "reader" (player?) uses a voice recorder built into the app to answer the bus driver's questions, and then these answers are plugged into the framework of the story. Basically, the storyline is the same as the ...Bus book, with the Pigeon asking to do something, the reader (or read-aloud audience,) saying repeatedly "No!" and the Pigeon freaking out. Younger kids can also have the app plug in randomized answers so that the story is different every time. As I said, I think Willems is brilliant, but I found this app to be too repetitive. Now, a three or four-year-old might not think so--and that's great--but one of the reasons that I love the books so much is that they can be enjoyed by all ages. This is because the art is at once so simple and subtle and sly, and you have to use changes in your voice, pauses, and eye contact with your audience to punch up the humor. I feel like something is lost when the Pigeon gets animated. He does all the work for the "reader." I find myself feeling sorry for the kids who get to hear a chorus of disembodied child voices and a laugh track in place of participating in the give and take of a read-aloud. Am I just being a curmudgeon? Is it just the best thing ever that a kid can hear their favorite story over and over, without needing an adult to read it? Is it more, or less, interactive to record your own voice "making" the story vs. the call-and-response with a loving adult? 

I liked Freight Train by Donald Crews better. (Harper Collins Publishers, iTunes, .99) This is a more straightforward e-book with fairly minimal animation (think Reading Rainbow-style, in which the original art is used in a active way, rather than new animated drawings being created.) The addition of music--which you can turn off--and sound effects, adds to the reader's understanding of what a freight train is, without stealing anything from the original pacing of the story.  I feel like I use more of my brain reading this e-book than I do when "interacting" with the Pigeon app? (and what is the right word for what a child does with a picture book app, anyway?) 

 My next foray into electronic books will be to read a full-length novel on Ruth's Kindle. Tally-ho!