Jay Bean and the Dreamers' Circus Review

Jay Bean and the Dreamers' Circus is a very nice iPad story book app that stands out in the category of children’s book apps as it is lengthier than many and is geared towards children 8 and up, giving them what is more of a chapter Ebook than a picture book with words to practice their reading comprehension skills, especially involving some longer pages of text. Options include either reading this book by oneself or following along with included narration.

In this story, the main character is a boy named Jay Bean who lives in a world where nobody dreams except him. Jay has vivid dreams about a circus and goes on an adventure looking for those who share the common experience of dreaming and can explain what these circus dreams mean.

The narration is nicely done here, as is the look of this app, and I am happy to report that although these nicely-done illustrations coincide with the text, there is a lot of narrative that takes place among these pages for which one must use his imagination to create these images. I love book apps in general, but sometimes animations in ebooks can be so on-the-nose of what is going on in the story that there is little left for the reader to fill in with his own creative thoughts. This app thoughtfully avoids this issue that is sometimes seen in other book apps. I also like how this application fits an average of 115 words per page and contains varied sentence structures without calling attention to itself, also containing a story structure worthy of being discussed in a classroom setting or at home with one's child.

I do think, however, that the choice for the color of the text used in this story to gradually change through out the page ombre style a bit distracting, especially as this text is superimposed over the illustrations and sometimes these colorful words blend into the images, reminding me of reading white-on-white movie subtitles.

I have enjoyed this story, appreciating the longer length, not terribly common among ebooks for kids in this age range, especially that include narration as an option. I also like the larger scope, as this story takes Jay to meet many interesting characters, with Jay going on an adventure with someone he meets along the way, traveling to “Dreamers Circus,” the very circus Jay has been dreaming about.

Personally I was a little let down by the “surprise ending” as it changes the story that I was greatly enjoying into something less creative and original. As an adult, I wish the ending were different, but I do recommend this book to children who in general are not as well-read as adults; this ending may still be a new idea to them.

This app is a good choice for getting kids to read longer more involved stories. I like that this app will open up to the last page read as this story (at 42 pages) may be a long read in one sitting for many children. It is also nice that this story is broken down into chapters in terms of an index, but it would be nice if this story was broken down into chapters during the reading of this book itself, giving the reader a nice place to take a break if desired.

All and all, an experience children will enjoy, with parents appreciating the more sophisticated writing style and longer length than found in many ebooks. Do check out the developer's site to download interesting educational resources that, although geared towards teachers, can be modified to be used at home as well, a nice addition to this ebook application.