Bizzy Bear Builds a House is a universal app by British book publisher and app developer Nosy Crow. This interactive picture book app, recommended for children ages 2 to 4, is the second in a series of apps based on Nosy Crow’s popular Bizzy Bear board book series illustrated by Benji Davies. You can read our review of the first app in the series Bizzy Bear on the Farm here.
The Bizzy Bear apps are very interactive and designed to immerse young children in the app. The app has read by myself and read to me options, with optional word highlighting. The narration is professionally done by children. In read by myself mode, you can also choose how long to leave the text on the screen. Bizzy is visiting a building site and first has to put on his hard hat, he can be moved around the scene to explore by tapping or dragging. The characters will talk and interact when they are touched and a blue dot appears to show the child where to touch next. The child can help operate a digger, a crane, a bulldozer, a fork lift, a dump truck and more. If you flick the characters they will jump, they will also do jobs such as hammering, sawing, bricklaying, painting and drilling when the child touches them. This book is a very fun interactive experience for toddlers and pre-schoolers and is great for following directions and practicing fine motor skills as well as learning about construction. The navigation icons are dimmed and require two taps to activate to prevent little kids from accidentally triggering them. The text highlighting as it is read, and read it myself options are also great for helping children to move on from just listening and interacting with the book to starting to read it. It contains no ads or in-app purchases. There is a “more apps” link on the front page that includes app store links, and there are social media links in the information section. It would be nice to see a parental lock option on these. Full Review
Category: Kids Books
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later.
Cost: $3.99 now FREE 
(63.7MB)
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Alison
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Alison, Amanda, Grace and Mary are four mothers from different parts of the world dedicated to educating parents about the best digital stories, educational apps, fun games and technology products available for their children. We also offer the latest news in apps for kids, interesting articles, developer interviews, free apps and regular giveaways!
