children's books

E-readers can be great for kids, especially a color model like the Kindle Fire.

In a device that weighs less than a pound, you can pack along hundreds of children's books -- a superb alternative to the overstuffed backpack that usually accompanies long car rides and plane trips.

Of course, e-books can be pricey, which is why it's hard to pass up this limited-time offer from Amazon: 47 children's e-books for Kindle for 99 cents each.

The books all come from Rabbit Ears Entertainment and normally cost $7.77 each.

These are illustrated versions of classic tales, … Read more

How I envy today's parents of young kids. Not too long ago, my family trips always included bulging, back-breaking backpacks stuffed with children's books.

Now, you can pack a 1.3-pound iPad (or an even lighter iPhone or iPod Touch) with enough books to go from here to there and back again.

And not just static reproductions of kids' classics, but animated, interactive titles both new and original. Case in point: Disney Digital Books just introduced The Lion King: Timon's Tale and Tangled: Storybook Deluxe for iOS. They're priced at $4.99 and $6.99, respectively.… Read more

I'm a longtime fan of Tales2Go, the iOS app that provides unlimited children's audiobooks for a flat monthly rate.

Tales2Go - Happy Holidays bundles 20 seasonal audiobooks into one app, with no subscription required. Instead, you pay just 99 cents. That's a great deal any way you slice it, and an outright steal for parents and schoolteachers alike.

The collection includes short stories, full-length books, and even a familiar poem or two. Here's a sampling:… Read more

Every single children's book for the iPad, from "Alice in Wonderland" to "Yertle the Turtle," has one thing in common: it's not about your kid.

JibJab Jr. Books changes all that, putting your child's face and name front and center in a personalized, animated iPad storybook. It's really cool--but also oddly flawed.

You've heard of JibJab, right? The service was originally known for its satiric videos (most notably "This Land," one of my all-time favorites), and later for its Starring You vids--which insert your mug into various animated clips.

That's the tech that drives JibJab Jr. Books, which comes with one free book: "The Biggest Pizza Ever." To get started, you create a boy or girl character using a photo in your library or Facebook account. (iPad 2 users can also snap a photo on the fly.) Then, with a little zooming and rotating, you position the face just so, and you're done.… Read more

Like most parents, I'm concerned that my kids get too much "screen time," what with the TV, computer, Wii, iPod/iPad, and so on. But if that time is spent reading, or at least flipping the pages of a book, I don't mind it one bit.

That's why I continue to be a relentless fan of children's e-books, which are increasingly abundant for iOS devices. Indeed, in the last couple of weeks alone, nearly a dozen new and noteworthy titles have arrived in the App Store. Here are the ones I think make for worthwhile screen time.

"Horton Hears a Who" and "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back": Two of my favorite Dr. Seuss titles just arrived in Oceanhouse Media's ever-growing catalog. Both on sale for $2.99, and in fact all the Seuss apps have been discounted from 25-75 percent off (this week only) in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday.… Read more

The other day I had to drag my kids along for some furniture shopping. Rather than endure whining and interruptions for half an hour, I handed over my iPhone--with the condition that the only apps they could use were e-books.

We didn't hear a peep from them the whole time.

As I said in Five amazing e-books for kids and again in Five more amazing e-books for kids, iOS devices are awesome e-book readers--especially for children's titles. So in honor of the season, I've rounded up another five excellent e-books for kids (six, actually)--all of them honed for the holidays.

Oceanhouse Media just cranked out a host of new goodies, including the Thanksgiving-themed "The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks" and the classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"--the latter featuring artwork and sound effects from the beloved TV special.

They're both $2.99, and both universal, meaning they're compatible with iPhones and iPads alike. (While you're at it, check out OM's new Little Critter titles: "All By Myself," "Just Grandma and Me," and "I Just Forgot." They're not holiday-related, but they're just as fabulous--and only $1.99 apiece.)

Christmas Tale for iPad  Let's hear it for a rare e-book freebie. It's your basic toddler-oriented tale of Santa, the North Pole, and presents, with nicely illustrated pages and the obligatory interactive goodies hidden therein. The app also includes a few games and even a wish-list builder. It's free until December 15.… Read more

Having turned more than a dozen Dr. Seuss classics into e-book gold, Oceanhouse Media is heading to Bear Country.

The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule, The Berenstain Bears Go To Sunday School, and The Berenstain Bears Say Their Prayers are now available in the App Store for an introductory price of $2.99 each.

If you have kids, you probably don't need me to introduce the series. These books are classics; I think I may have read a few back when I was a kid (the first title appeared in 1974). Although a handful of the books have … Read more

One of my favorite apps of 2010 just got a major update. Tales2Go, which provides on-demand access to nearly 1,300 children's audiobooks, updated the app to add multitasking support, story caching for offline listening, new subscription options, and more.

Intended for children between the ages of 3 and 11, Tales2Go offers a huge range of listening material--everything from two-minute fables to full-length novels. These aren't just public-domain works, either: you'll find well-known series like "American Girl," "The Boxcar Children," "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," and "Encyclopedia Brown."

For … Read more

Here's an anniversary worth celebrating: it was 50 years ago last month that Dr. Seuss published "Green Eggs and Ham." It's since gone on to become the fourth best-selling children's book of all time.

Oceanhouse Media, which for the past year has been turning "Green Eggs and Ham" and other Seuss classics into spectacular apps, decided to honor the event with a 50-percent-off sale. For the rest of the week, you can buy Yertle the Turtle (possibly the best book ever written on the subject of turtle-stacking) for $1.99, the kids game … Read more