The Big Picture Book Review

The Big Picture Book is a lovely iPad app for babies, toddlers and beyond. This app teaches the youngest app users new words by viewing more than than 80 striking, hi-definition photos of various objects of which six categories included - Animals, Baby animals, At the zoo, Colors, Vehicles and Fruits & Vegetables. Narration is included in English as well as an impressive seven other languages including Swedish, Spanish, Dutch, German, Norwegian, French and Polish.

This app would be a good choice as a child's first app. The photos each look beautiful and are full of rich details that even the smallest of children will enjoy. Having so many languages is nice and especially helpful to bilingual families or if one is interested in teaching a child words in a foreign language. The English narration is spoken with an accent to an American ear, and I wonder if if will be difficult for some children to understand at times what is being said. I don't think this is a huge flaw, however, as this app is geared to the very young who are most likely sharing this experience with an adult who can help explain the words if necessary. Nice to look at, this is a pleasant choice that is not at all over stimulating.

Recently, two mini games have also been added to this app - “Memory” and “Find it” - which may appear to slightly older kids. “Memory” is a classic-style memory game where the one turns cards over, looking for photos to match in order to make pairs. In “Find It,” the player taps one of four pictures that correspond to a word which is also narrated, testing the player's knowledge of what they has learned. These games will appeal to toddlers and preschoolers, making this app an activity that babies as well as older children can share together, making this a good choice for a family app.