Paddington Bear is a new storybook app from HarperCollins Publishing. The app features the classic story of Paddington Bear that has been loved by many children for over 50 years. Now, there is a way to enjoy Paddington Bear on your iPad with a new interactive storybook app.  The app features classic stories with original artwork and animations. What differentiates this app from others is that it is possible to video record yourself reading the story so that your child can play it back whenever they want. This means that it’s a more personal telling of the story and isn’t just an anonymous narrator.

Navigating the Paddington Bear app should be quite simple for a child. There are only really 3 options you can choose – Read, Record, and Photos. Pressing Read goes directly into the story with the options of either listening to it with audio or without. Listening to it with audio allows you to choose whether you want to use the default narration or if you want to use a custom one you’ve recorded. This is pretty much the same with most storybook apps on the iPad.

If you click on the Record button, you’ll be taken into the option of being able to record your own audio. Unlike other apps however, Paddington Bear allows you to also record video of yourself reading the story. This is a nice feature and one that children will enjoy because not only do they get to hear you, they also get to see you.

The last option is the Photos one. This is basically a simple portion of the app that allows you to take pictures of yourself surrounded by a custom Paddington Bear picture frame. There isn’t much to it as there is only one frame to choose from.

When it comes to the story portion of the app, you’ll be treated to the original pages of Paddington Bear. The only difference is that your kids will be able to tap on special tap sports that will animate portions of the illustrations. They’ve also added audio to many of the illustrations as well that play when you tap. There are no interactive activities however in this storybook app which is a shame as we’ve seen a few already with interactive activities that really add value to the book. Still though, you’re getting more than what you would normally get purchasing the print version of this book. As stated above, your child will be able to also listen to the storybook with custom audio recorded by you and also see video of you if you choose that option. It’s a nice way to really personalize the story.

Paddington Bear is a fairly good storybook app that does many thing right, but also could be improved upon. I like how you can record video of yourself telling the story as well as the fact that you can have many other people record themselves too so your child can choose who they want to read the story that night. Kids should enjoy this aspect of the app. What I don’t understand about the app however is that the description states that the app is about 288mb yet when I installed it, it takes up a hefty 850mb!! And that’s without even recording any video. That’s a large file for a storybook app. Not sure why it needs to take up that much space. Hopefully a future update will remedy this because for those that only have 16gb iPads, that’s a lot of valuable space to eat up on just a storybook app.

Paddington Bear is available now in the App Store for $5.99. It is a universal app and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Description

iPaddington is here. The classic story of much-loved Paddington Bear, now for iTouch, iPhone and iPad.

Enjoy the classic story of Paddington Bear, instantly recognisable to parents and loved by adults and children all over the world.
•Record your own video reading of the Paddington story! The app’s ability to remember several versions means a child can choose his or her digital bedtime storyteller for the evening.
•Take framed photos of you and your child with Paddington to send to family and friends, in association with the National Portrait Gallery. Share on Facebook and Twitter!
•Classic R. W. Alley illustrations now animated!
•Children can read alone, or along to the narration of Paul Vaughan, sharing a cosy reading experience with parents and grandparents.
•Background animation and sound means that curious readers can truly submerge themselves in the world of Paddington Bear.
•A classic Paddington experience with a sprinkling of digital magic!

[via App Store]