Lazy Bird Frank is just what his name implies- lazy. It’s time for his flock to go on vacation to Hawaii, and lazy Frank selfishly tricks others, and takes shortcuts to get to his vacation without doing any of the work himself. Will Frank the “Lazy Bird” ever learn that being full of lies, just makes you empty inside?

Lazy Bird is a simple storybook app with a relatable message, illustrated beautifully and narrated excellently, and is told in a very entertaining voice, from Lazy Bird Frank’s point of view. I would recommend this app for kids ages five and up. There is quite a bit of text in the story, and would probably keep the attention better of a child over five.

There are three ways to read Lazy Bird:

Read to Me: Listen to the exciting narration performed by a talented 9-year-old girl. The text is highlighted karaoke style when spoken. The narrator brought great energy and character portrayal to the story, and I enjoyed how the book is written in first person. Frank really puts your child in the story by “talking” to the audience as he shares his tale.

Read it Myself: You or your child can read the story on your own, while still enjoying the background music and sound effects.

Record the Voice: Record you or your child reading the book. Press on the microphone at the bottom of the page to begin recording. Wait till it changes to a red color and begin. When finished reading a page, press on the microphone again to stop recording, and choose whether to playback your recording, save it, or delete it. Proceed through all the pages of the story. Once you have recorded all the pages, select the Read to Me option on the home screen, and a pop-up window will ask if you would like to listen to your own recording, or the original. It would be nice to see in a future update, instructions given on the process to record the voice for help.

Lazy Bird has great background music, that enhances and emphasizes the emotions of the situations Frank gets himself into. The illustrations are vivid, bright, and compelling, and I like how photography was also merged into the illustrations with a cool effect. There were however a couple of errors I noticed: one page had a different style font from the others, and it looked like a couple of pages were missing a period at the end of the very last sentence. No major issues though that would interrupt the story or experience.

I liked the app and the story very much, but would think this app would be even better with some interactive features. It would be great for kids to be able to tap on words in the text to hear the word pronounced if they get stuck reading the story on their own. I also liked how when you turn the page, it looks like you are actually flipping a page of paper.

Lazy Bird is a storybook app with a compassionate message that every child can learn from, and the storytelling, illustrations, and background music all combine beautifully to create an enjoyable experience for a young child.

Disclosure: I do not receive compensation for writing this 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.