eBook Review: Three New Berenstain Bears omBooks

Oceanhouse Media’s new set of adventures featuring the Berenstain Bears, characters originally created by Stan and Jan Berenstain in 1962, is part of the Living Lights Series, a series of books aimed to teach children Bible phrases. I reviewed the Apple versions of the three apps for the iPad and iPhone.

In The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule, Sister learns how to treat her friends more kindly.

In The Berenstain Bears and A Job Well Done, cubs Sister, Brother, and Honey Bear learn how to finish what they started and stay true to their words.

In The Berenstain Bears’ Faithful Friends, Sister learns how to keep her old friends while making new ones, and the importance of friendship.

Like other omBooks, there are many ways to enjoy these stories with the classic children’s book characters the Berenestain Bears. The interface is easy to grasp, and both little and adult hands can swipe the screen to turn the page, tap the screen to bring up highlighted words, or hold a finger over a paragraph and have the narrator read it again.

With the “Read to Me” feature a narrator recites the story, each word highlighted.

If a young reader chooses to read the story on their own in the “Read it Myself” feature, he or she can tap each word at their own pace, with the graphics zooming in. Flipping pages, in a side-swipe motion and tapping pictures for highlighted words is also available.

In the “Auto Play” feature the narrator reads the story and the pages flip automatically, but readers can still tap the illustrations for highlighted words. There is also music and sound effects featured in each story.

My seven-year-old enjoyed reading all three stories on her own, as well as flipping back and forth to the narrator reading them to her. The Berenstain Bears omBooks are another great way for kids to enjoy reading, learn a useful lesson, and engage with classic characters like the Berenstain Bears.