The Sun Goes to Bed Review

The Sun Goes to Bed is a lovely interactive storybook - a perfect story before bed. Narration is included, as is auto play, but reading this book to oneself as well as making one's own recording are also options. One can also personalize this app with a child's name - always a nice touch.

This is a wonderful story to put kids in the mood to go to sleep, as this charming tale introduces many things found in nature that want to go to sleep as much as the sun does - the main character found within.

I love the other included characters seen doing their nighttime routines, such as flower petals closing their buds for the night, birds blinking tiredly and cat stretching before bed.

There are some other interesting moments, one involving ants on their way home, as well nicely describing how hard the sun works taking care of things that grow and how the sun now needs to rest.

The illustrations are wonderful to look at, with rich, lush colors used throughout, especially towards the end as the sun becomes red while setting, including a beautiful, warm palette of most impressive sunset colors.

Animations are found throughout this simple, elegant storybook that add to the richness of this experience, helping these characters perform their nighttime tasks as they get ready for sleep. Although stylistically different, I often think of the illustrations by Eric Carle in terms similar bright and bold color choices found within this storybook, especially yellow and orange hues of the sun, a character that readers get to know and relate too.

There is a lot to appreciate within this story. Written in soothing rhyme akin to Margaret Wise Brown's gentle style of writing, I have enjoyed this storybook app more than most rhyming apps that I come across that may seem forced and overly obvious for my taste, as the rhymes here are more gradual poetry that may flow over a few pages, keeping readers lyrically engaged as well as to help unwind young readers for bedtime.

For me, the best part of this sleepy book is the yawning that these characters partake in, from flowers to cats and the sun itself. These yawns are lovely, relaxing and most contagious, making it difficult for me, even as an adult, not to yawn myself as I listen to the included, peaceful-sounding narration.

Because of this, families will find this storybook to be an excellent choice for nighttime reading for babies throughout the preschool years and beyond.

It would be nice, however, if an option to remove the progress bar at the bottom of the screen showing the progression of pages in this storybook as it may be distracting for some.

I have been a loyal fan of Touchoo from their first developed app, 1 Little Boy. It makes me happy to see them become a prolific developer, now with many titles within their library. If interested, do check out GiggleApps for more reviews of Touchoo apps. I also look forward to reviewing more of Touchoo’s applications in the future.