Children adore sticker books and this new app from Company5 actually started life as a sticker book before being reformatted for the iPad, where I must admit, it really does work well.
Adorably colourful yet simple illustrations - or 'stickers' - allow kids to create their own stories with some basic formats. Kids can either make up their own story by clicking and dragging stickers into a story template or match stickers to preset sticker outlines within a story - perfect for practising shapes and words. Each sticker is read out by the narrator, enhancing word comprehension.
Stories can be saved and played back at any time, and there is also a sticker page where kids can choose a background and get busy with stickering.
Navigation is simple, making the app a joy to scoot through. A home button on every page and arrows to help kids navigate page turns and sticker selection are great additions. The voice narration is absolutely charming, warm friendly and childlike, and the background music is super cute (with a mute option).
My only criticism would be the constant insistence by the narrator "what would you like to do?" and "choose one of these!" and "let's have some fun!" and "which one do you want to play?" every 5 seconds or so (and no, the mute button will not silence her - I tried!). If a child has paused with the app, it would get mighty frustrating having this in their ear, so perhaps just a few encouraging words are enough - not an endless barrage.
A visually pleasing, educational yet fun app for toddlers.
This is My Story and I'm Sticking to It is produced by Company5 and is available on iTunes for AU$1.19
