story fort digital childrens books

The nice folks at Story Fort contacted me recently to see if I would be interested in looking at their newest addition to their line of interactive digital books for kids.  Since my kids love books of all kinds and are always asking to play computer – which I'm often conflicted about – a digital book seemed like a great match for us!
We read "What is Bothering Carl?",($15) about a cyclops named Carl whose laid back life is disrupted by a single nuisance. We get to follow along as Carl tries to solve his problem.

Here's that they say about it:

• Story Fort was founded by Andy Hull, a former toy designer at Melissa and Doug.
• Specializing in interactive digital books for kids ages 3+, Story Fort features books designed to engage young readers' imaginations and encourage their sense of learning.
• Books feature a full (optional) audio narration by the author, as well as highlighted phrases to help your child read along and illustrated keywords to build vocabulary.
• Two original songs with animated music videos and a bonus memory game with 3 difficulty levels.

What we say about it:

I was concerned when I got the book and realized it was about a monster. With two little girls, we live in a pink princess land over here, so I wasn't sure that my girls would even be remotely interested in a book about a cyclops. But, they LOVED it.
They read it three or four times, then wanted to play the memory game and watch the music videos. They were both singing along with the music and Ellie – who is 6 – was reading along with the narration. I had to force them to stop playing and go to bed! My kids' only complaint was that there wasn't more. They said they wished there was another story and more games to play.
We've had it on our computer for a few weeks and they have been asking to play "What is Bothering Carl?" more than any other game that we have. (They're even asking for that instead of nickjr.com!)

As a mom, I thought this was a great product. My kids are both learning to read right now, so I'm always on the lookout for products that will help them build vocabulary and practice reading. This is NOT a mindless computer game! Plus, the instructions were so clear, the girls needed no help from me to read the book or play the games, which was wonderful. Some other "preschool" computer games we've tried were much too complicated and left the girls (and mommy) annoyed and frustrated. This is perfectly age appropiate. And it was so cute!  Look at this screen shot:
 
It is bright, colorful and FUN. I highly recommend this if you have a preschooler and are looking for learning tools or computer activities. As a former preschool teacher, I would have loved to have this in my classroom at the computer station!! (This would be great to add to your summer bridge activities!) I'm really looking forward to Story Fort's next book!

You can purchase "What is Bothering Carl?" at www.storyfort.com