Collins Big Cat: It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator

The moon is shining in the night sky, the blustery wind is whistling, the fallen leaves are blowing; now where is a hedgehog to sleep and keep warm this dark and dreary night?

Read along with your child on the journey of Ned the hedgehog as he explores the environment around him, and discovers where animals makes their homes in anticipation of the bitter coming cold of winter. Collins Big Cat: It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator brilliantly provides both a reading toolkit and an engaging story, that gets kids not only reading, but comprehending, observing, and creatively writing.

Collins Big Cat: It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator is available for the iPad for $3.99, and is recommended for children ages 5 and up. Good price for all that can be done in the app.

Parents, before you dive into Collins Big Cat: It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator, take a look at the ”Get more out of reading” tab on the home screen. Here you can learn of questions to ask your child as they read, how to help him or her if they get stuck while reading, and lead them to draw logical conclusions of what might happen next, by making observations from the animation and sound effects on each page.

Time to read! Choose between the options “Read to me”, in which the story is read aloud by a narrator and each word is highlighted as spoken, or “Read myself”, where you or your child read the story on your own. Both of these modes of reading allow for voice recording and playback of you or your child reading the story aloud. Another really neat feature of Collins Big Cat: It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator is the hints button. Reviewing so many apps, I’m so glad to see this feature! You don’t have to tap your finger all over the screen, trying to figure out where the animation is located. Tap on the paw print tab at the bottom of the screen, and white flashing paw prints will appear in the illustrations, leading you to where the animations can be selected. You can also tap on the open book icon, and jump to any page of the book you wish. One small flaw I did notice is that in the Read to me option, sometimes the karaoke style of each word highlighted when spoken, seemed a bit out of sync on a few pages, but not a big deal.

Watch the video below to see Big Cat: It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator in action.

Once you finish reading the story, you and your child can choose to take a quiz or create your own story. Take the quiz to test how much your child remembers about events in the story; go back and read the story together again, and look for the answers to questions not known. Choose the story creator (which you can also access from the home screen), and create your very own story with your child. Decide from the various selections of scenes, objects, and characters, then write the text for each page. Record you or your child reading the created story, and play it back to see and hear your very own storybook app brought to life. Very nice feature, and keeps the excitement and use of the app going, long after you’ve finished reading.

Collins Big Cat: It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator app is a refreshingly different storybook/interactive app, that comes fully equipped with a reading comprehension and writing tool belt for moms in assisting their children’s life-long love of reading, and sparks creativity in writing literature. Great addition to have on your iPad library!

Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this app review. I received a promotional code for this app in faith of writing an app review. The photos used were taken as screen shots from my iPhone or iPad. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.