It seems like everybody is into reading the Hunger Games, but sometimes listening to the stories my child comes up with, and the imaginary characters she introduces me to, can be quite entertaining, also. Here’s an app that I’m very excited about, especially since I used to write stories on good ole fashion paper and illustrate with crayon when I was young.

Bookabi is an educational app, that supplies all the tools for your child to exercise their imagination and become the author of their very own stories, while creatively designing their own digital illustrations.

Bookabi by Tamaji,  is available for the iPad for $2.99. I would recommend this app for elementary-aged kids, but preschoolers could enjoy it too, with the help of an adult or older sibling.

Here’s how the app works:

Open Bookabi and start a new story. Choose the title and fill in your name as the author. You can choose to layout your story in landscape or portrait. Next edit the cover of your book, or dive right into writing your story. On each page you can choose from a variety of backgrounds (including the ability to insert a photo from your camera roll), characters, objects, stickers, or put your own pic as the face of a character. All images are 2D or 3D graphics. Choose your background and then find your starring characters. Select a character, choose it’s pose, emotions, and activity, and watch as the character changes on the screen. Adjust the size of characters and objects by using the two-finger method common in many ios apps. Your child can even put his or her face as the character in the story, if your iPad has a camera. Insert text boxes and type the storyline.

Bookabi is very intuitive and easy to navigate, especially if your kids are familiar with apps. If you need help or want to learn about how to use the app before starting, there is a tutorial you can access by selecting the “?” on the home screen.

What I love about Bookabi, is that your child can tailor the literature he or she creates to fit their interests: storybook, comic, or your kids can re-tell their day by creating a story to share with you at bedtime. It can become almost like a diary of special days, too. The creativity is endless.

You can also share your story via email, save to iTunes, import, and print by selecting the share icon on the home screen. Want more characters, backgrounds, or stickers? Purchase illustration packages to add more cool features to your story, all within the app. Just select the shopping cart icon in the top right-hand corner of the home screen.

Please watch the video below to see Bookabi in action.

I love how this app develops children’s thoughts into a story, disciplines their mind and stimulates creativity, while still having fun on the iPad. It’s a great app to have this summer, to keep your child’s mind sharp during school vacation.

In a future update, I’d love to see the ability to voice record and playback the reading of the story. That would just be the icing on the top of this magnificent app’s cake.

Bookabi puts your child in the author’s seat, and provides the path for them to explore and create their own literature.

Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this app review. Views expressed in this review are purely and only mine. Images used are screenshots from my iPad. Pricing was accurate at the time of this review.