My Beastly ABC’s by Duncan Studios – Review & Giveaway

Reviewed by Alison

My Beastly ABC’s by Duncan Studios is a delightfully designed ABC app designed to teach and entertain children with an interactive storybook format featuring vibrant illustrations and animations that children and their parents will love.  The app, designed by Duncan Studios features 39 pages, hide and seek as well as interaction on each page as well as a variety of hidden mini games.  Best of all, the app is narrated or “performed” by Jim Dale, from Harry Potter, so immediately people are drawn in by the performance of the book.  The interactive story features a little boy who goes from morning when he gets up on the “wrong side of the bed” and his beastly adventures throughout the day with a variety of mythical creatures on every page in alphabetical order.  The app features an “interactive mode” which allows the user to control the story and engage in the activities; “auto-play mode” which plays in a format similar to a short film, “chapter menu” which allows you to move to your favorite pages or scenes and the “index menu” which provides fun kid, friendly monster facts and descriptions as well as the more traditional, “play with narration” and “play without narration”.

I really liked the mythical creatures and the “index menu” at the end telling us all about where each creature came from, it would be nice if this were interspersed within the text of the book to say “The Abominable Snowman” from Nepal  appeared in the shower.  The illustrations and performance of this book app were top notch and had us captivated and reading it over and over again.  My son really enjoyed the “auto-play mode” and watching the story play itself through.  The story is enhanced with the colorful and creative illustrations and plot within the story and hidden surprises like the question marks turning into a variety of beasts!  We really enjoyed all of the mini games, listening to the narration and thinking of other monsters that might start with a specific letter.

In terms of improvements, I’d like to see the arrows used for navigation moved to the bottom of the page rather than in the middle.  I felt that this sometimes interfered with the interactivity of the pages and moving them down might give more space for the storybook.  I’d also like to see word highlighting and the ability to replay the text or narration on the page which would allow early readers to use the app themselves and see modeling of different words as well as sounds.  It would be nice at the end to recap all of the monsters in one final page from A to Z just after the last page when the little boy goes to sleep as he thinks back to all the things he “saw and had done’.

This delightful interactive storybook is fun for parents and children to enjoy and read together.  The non-traditional format of the app is a great diversion from traditional ABC books and the narration by Jim Dale adds an extra touch of excitement to the app.  Interacting with all of the illustrations be it furry, friendly or merely strange was educational and fun to read over and over again!  This is a five star must have ABC book app and a great value for the money!  I can’t wait to see what else Duncan Studios has in store for us!

My Beastly ABCs by Duncan Studio Category: Books, Education Requirements: Compatible with iPadThirdGen4G, iPad 2 WiFI, iPadThirdGen, iPadFourthGen4G, iPadFourthGen, iPad 2 3G, iPad 3G, iPadMini4G, iPad WiFi, iPadMini Size: 364.25 MB

$3.99USD

Screenshots for iPad

Giveaway

If you would like to win a poster with My Beastly ABCS’s, please enter via the widget below. The winners will be emailed and must contact The iMums within 48 hours to claim their prize. This giveaway is open  in the United States only and a valid postal address is is required to claim your prize.  Please ensure you have read and understand our Terms & Conditions. Good luck!

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Alison

Alison, the American iMum is from Illinois. She lives there with her son and husband. In their spare time, they enjoy playing outside, enjoying nature and of course testing apps and fantastic products on their devices. They have a variety of devices including an iPad, iPhone, and an iPod and her newest device which is an iPad Mini!

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You can email me direct at alison(at)theimums.com