Media Enhanced Children’s Books {A Review}

The book Glaciers is geared toward children in grades 3-6.  I had my 2nd and 4th grader read this book.  I thought the interactive component to this book was excellent.  It contained audio, videos, activity sheets, web links to sites containing more information, a slideshow, a transparency, links to google maps that showed where the actual glaciers were, a quiz and keywords.

The only one I didn’t care for was the audio.  It was a really bad computer voice simulation.  I was rather glad my kids are good readers and did not need to use this part of the program.  I loved the video aspect of this book.  My kids were especially enthralled by the video of the glacier calving.  I think they watched it multiple times.  The activities were also helpful to help them gain a better understanding of what they were reading about.  And I liked that additional resources were included for children who want to continue to dig deeper into the topics covered.

This book would make a wonderful resource for learning and studying about glaciers.  I think you could make an entire unit study out of just this book and the resources included. 

A Lion’s World

A Lion’s World, which is part of the “EyeDiscover” series is geared toward grades K-2.  The book itself is comprised of simple sentences and pictures stating facts about lions.  The interactive version reads the book to you and each spread has a short video clip that depicts the behavior that was described.  There is even two brief clips where you get to hear a lion roaring as well. 

The pictures in the book, while similar, are not entirely the same as the scenes in the videos.  Also, at the back of the book there are some interesting facts and a list of sight and content words and where they appeared in the book, which is not part of the online interaction.

My five year old enjoyed this and I felt that the video clips from the interactive book helped to paint a better picture about what she was learning.  She even asked to listen to it again.  It would be a good supplement to include in an animal unit study or as a stand alone.

There Once Was A Cowpoke Who Swallowed An Ant

This is a really cute book which is also geared toward children in grades K-2.  This story follows a Cowpoke and all the silly animals he uses to try to get rid of an ant he swallowed.  The read-along will let you choose to have it read to you automatically or to highlight the text you want it to read.  There is a narrator’s voice and the cowpoke’s voice.  The illustrations are reminiscent of the Old West and the characters boxy.  I found it a good fit for the story.