What we love…
The illustrations in the app, especially the sparkling trees and beautiful colors
What we’d love to see…
if some of the hidden sounds could be “highlighted” if a child was having trouble finding them on their own. I wish you could have the text re-read to you without having to flip back or forward a page.
Summary
This is a great story about teaching your children how to set goals and follow through with them. By having your child take accountability, they will be more likely to follow through and actually complete them like Gerry did in the story. This is also a great story for teaching children that we all have different abilities, but we can work on our strengths and try to make them even better.
Our Rating
Reviewed by Alison
Gerry the Giraffe HD is a delightful story about Gerry and his quest to improve his volleyball skills written by Melissa Northway of Polka Dots Publishing and published by PicPocket Books. This beautifully illustrated book is set in Africa where giraffes love to play volleyball. Gerry is left behind when his friends on the “Super Sonics” team go off to volleyball camp. Gerry is sad that he is not invited to volleyball camp because he is small and they believe he is unable to play. His mother gives the sage advice that he will grow up and perhaps he should try to improve his skills over the summer. Gerry thinks about it and decides that his Dad’s advice of “Keep trying – don’t give up” is an important mantra to follow. I also liked the narration in the book along with the word highlighting which are especially helpful to learning readers. The app includes questions at the end to discuss with your child as well as alignment to core learning standards written by Cyndie Sebourn and Sacsyn Publishing.
I loved the illustrations in this app especially the sparkling trees and all of the beautiful colors. I also liked that Gerry came up with his own plan on how to improve his volleyball game because it showed he was taking ownership for his actions and would be more likely to follow through on them. The narration of the book coupled with the animations and hidden sounds and actions made reading the book with my son fun because each time he has found something a little bit different to interact with. I also liked the illustrations were appropriate for young children with words and coloring similar to a child, which I believe will help them identify with the story. Throughout the story, Gerry has the support of his parents and friends which helps him know that his goal is achievable. After meeting his goal, Gerry “pays it forward” and helps other young giraffes learn the skills he worked so hard to perfect. The fun facts at the end of the story are also helpful to help kids learn more about Giraffes just like the fact that each one has their own unique pattern.
In terms of improvements for the app, it would be nice if some of the hidden sounds could be “highlighted” if a child was having trouble finding them on their own. I wish you could have the text re-read to you without having to flip back or forward a page.
This is a great story about teaching your children how to set goals and follow through with them. By having your child take accountability, they will be more likely to follow through and actually complete them like Gerry did in the story. This is also a great story for teaching children that we all have different abilities, but we can work on our strengths and try to make them even better. This app is geared at children from preschool through early elementary school. It could be a nice book for children who may be entering kindergarten and making transitions to help them understand that they can achieve almost any goal they wish to set by working hard, following through. Read our interview with Melissa Northway and also a review of one of her other apps, Penelope the Purple Pirate.
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Gerry the Giraffe HDby PicPocket BooksCategory: Books, Education Requirements: Compatible with iPadMini4G, iPadThirdGen4G, iPad 2 WiFI, iPad 2 3G, iPadFourthGen4G, iPadFourthGen, iPadMini, iPadThirdGen, iPad 3G, iPad WiFi Size: 54.97 MB |
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Screenshots for iPad
(Click to enlarge)
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Giveaway
Want to win a signed print copy of this book? Winners will be emailed and must contact The iMums within 48 hours to claim their prize. This giveaway is open to people with a valid US mailing address only. Please ensure you have read and understand our Terms & Conditions. Good luck!
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!
The illustrations look beautiful! I’m always looking for stories with a message and this story would seem to be a great addition to my daughter’s book app collection.
I love this book so much! I would give my collection a boost in the artwork!
I love the artistic nature of the paintings! it would definitely be a colorful addition to my collection!!
I would use it as I work with children who have speech and language delays. A great addition to my library.
The colors are amazing and my daughter loved Penelope so much I am sure she would also love this just as much!
We love Penelope the Purple Pirate. I’m sure Melissa Northway did a fabulous job on this as well.
Great illustrations and our family loves Penelope! Melissa Northway is a great author!
I like stories with a positive purpose…a moral, a message…and this fits the bill!
Great book to teach important life lessons.
The gorgeous illustrations would provide inspiration to my talented daughter who aspires to become an artist one day.
The illustrations look amazing! I also like the object of the lesson of learning how to set goals and accomplish them. This would be a great tool both educationally and literacy-wise.
As an elementary SLP, this would be a great addition to target a variety of different goals that I could use with a students of different ages
As an app with a great lesson about not giving up, trying different things and helping others, it would definitely add a great story with a great message to our collection.
I love the illustrations. I would use this book with my speech and language students.
This would improve my collections because many times our children give up way to fast and stories with positive morals such as this one… keep trying and you can do it, if an effective teaching tool to inspire students not to give up!
This story app would be graet for teaching my kindergarten students to be more accepting of others as well as the importance of setting goals.
Cooper has a speech problem and this book along with its amazing diagrams will help him practice while enjoying a great read
Good positive stories with a life lesson are important for children of all ages and abilities. The app would be great for Sophie to read on her own. The print copy would be wonderful for me to read to her at bedtime when we don’t use screens as we settle down for the night.
the art looks great and giraffes look so tender :)
Gerry would help me teach my girls how to take accountability of their actions!
Nicholas loves books and lights up everytime he gets a new one, this would be a wonderful book for him, especially with all the great illustrations!
This would enhance my collection because it is a wonderful story with good morale values to teach to children.
Love what Melissa does! Would love to have this here. My daughter loves giraffes and would love this story with it’s teachings.
This app would be a fun addition – my children love “hidden” things to find!
I already have the app. I would love a print copy to go with it.
I would love to have a print copy of this book to work with with the kids that visit our home, and eventually donate to our library. Here Mississippi folks are at a premium! Thanks for the giveaway opportunity! :-)
I would love to get an app to give to the traveling teacher who touches so many kids!
I think this book would be great to review with students and then have them set some speech goals.
This would enhance my collection of books from which to draw language and real life lessons.
this will enhance my collection with pselling letters colours animals and among things there minds
would love for my daughter to learn to follow through a task!
The app is wonderful and the book would be a beautiful complement.
We love Penelope the Purple Pirate. I’m sure Melissa Northway did a fabulous job on this as well. Its always nice to add another title for them!
I love everything Melissa Northway has written and developed, because it’s engaging, educational, and fun.
and this book would enhance my collection, because it’s encouraging to kids who sometimes get left out or left behind by their peers
The illustrations look amazing! The lesson would be great to share with my students.
Beautiful illustrations with a great story line. This book will be useful in reinforcing the value of working to overcome challenges. It will be a great addition to our library.
I do a lot of work with kids of all ages many with special learning challenges I know this book would be a big hit with them. It would also be great to share with ‘my’ kids when I do voluntourism in Kenya!
Multiple times EVERY single day! =)
We read daily. I prefer printed books. Technology becomes an obsession sometimes.
the book is really good and the giveaway is awesome :)
on a daily bascis and we do both
everyday sometimes digital books, sometimes physical ones!
I read with my son every day. We use actual books, not digital.
Pretty much everyday – usually regular books and my son does the ebooks by himself!
I read daily with my children (both physical “real” books and digital) sometimes both types each evening!
Physical books
We read every day actual books.
We read daily, a variety of digital and hard copy books!
I would love a book like this to add to my collection. My students LOVE animals! I don’t have children of my own, but I encourage my students to read everyday regardless of the medium…print or digital. I think it’s all good!
read every day more around holidays
I read quite often to my children in homeschool and throughout the day
Love the illustrations and would be a great addition to my collection.
About 3-4 times a week. I use both of them
I’m just getting into e books…we read only paper books or listened to tapes when the kids were younger.
i read at least 3 times a week with the kids. i read both digital and physical books.
I read both types of media to my children and do so as often as possible every single day!
We read every morning and night, over an hour a day,mostly digital books as we don’t watch DVD’s, and TV maybe twice a week.
I read with the kids every night. We do “real” books and e-books.
We read a few times a day, definitely at least once at bedtime. I prefer reading physical copies, Easier on my eyes, and she’s more likely to focus on what Im saying…if we use any kind of technology my daughter just wants to play with it and take it out of our hands lol She’s still just little
We read books very day, usually print books, but some digital too.
What gorgeous illustrations, my daughter would love to add this to her collection, we read everyday both physical and e books!
Gorgeous illustrations! This would be a welcome addition to my daughters library, we read both physical and e books everyday :)
We read everyday. My girls do like a few digital books but they are so used to physical and have so many of those to choose from, they prefer them
I read to/with my students every day. We use both print and digital books.
Toby Price We read nightly from both digital and paper books.
We read to our children at least 25 minutes a day. We read physical books
We have this app and my girls love it.
I try to read with my daughter every night. But my 10 year is into doing her own thing. And my autistic daughter would rather look at the pictures by herself. I end up talking out loud to myself! My autistic daughter prefers paper books. My other daughter and I are drawn to digital books. So convenient to carry around. And she doesn’t loose the books…
I try to read with my daughter every night. But my 10 year is into doing her own thing. And my autistic daughter would rather look at the pictures by herself. I end up talking out loud to myself! My autistic daughter prefers paper books. My other daughter and I are drawn to digital books. So convenient to carry around. And she doesn’t loose the books…
Maybe I write too much
I read daily with my kids with both digita and physical books
I read to my girls all the time. At night, we prefer paper books. During the day, e-books and apps can be a lot of fun.
We read every day both digital and print books.
We read actual books. We read to our almost 3 year old every night and typically many times per day.
books at our house every evening/night…. most of the time they are books from the library…but on occasion they lay in bed with me reading off the ipad