The Star Toaster company gave me the opportunity to review their app, an Interactive book called: Orphs of the Woodlands at Tangletree, an app purchased through iTunes. My sons, David (11) and Daniel (6) were able to use and enjoy this app.

I was very curious about how an interactive book would work, and whether my son would find it interesting and engaging. Educational apps can be hit or miss on keeping a child’s interest, and since this was not a required course, I was eager to see if he would voluntarily choose to use the app unprompted by me. To be fair, I have no games on my phone (iPhone 5c), so being allowed to use my phone was a treat all on it’s own.

I first tried to get around the app on my own. I was a little confused and really did not have the time and energy into figuring it out, so I handed it to David (1) and said: “I am reviewing this, figure it out.”  He did. Quite easily. So I watched to see if it would keep his interest and it did.

The interesting thing is that the “story” is the background and the user reads the story, follows the links in the story to gain information, then do tasks to gain “stars” needed to purchase things they need in the game to keep the little critters they call Orphs (short for orphans) alive. As the story progresses, the user gets to “unlock” lessons in the following areas:

• math
• science
• vocabulary
• language skills
• grammar
• thinking skills
• character
• life skills
• arts

The neat thing, they can check their progress as they go, and so can the parent.

Interestingly, Daniel (6) was not terribly interested in the story, but he really enjoyed watching the educational videos. He watched videos about weather and was able to share some of the fun facts he learned. The videos also included simple, funny (sometimes punny) jokes which he enjoys repeating to the rest of the family.

Since I use my phone extensively for work and for social media, the boys did not use the app much while we were home, but they enjoyed using it in the car, when I am never using my phone, or they would ask to use it while waiting at appointments and the like. When David completed the book, he asked me if he could put in his email address so that he would be informed when the next one from the company was ready!

It is my opinion that this is a high quality app that worked well. My boys never complained about glitches or crashes.The graphics were high quality and pleasant to look at. There was no violence which I prefer in video games. I saw no alarming elements. I am impressed and I know we will be excited to purchase the next story when it is ready. At $1.99 I thought it was well worth the price.