When You Grow Up – a you're-in-the-story book! Review

When You Grow Up – a you're-in-the-story book! Kidztory app from Stepworks is a creative and engaging universal application which allows the reader to become a part of the story by including their picture in the story as the main character who experiments with many different occupations, thinking about what they will become later on in life. Both listening to a narrator as well as reading by oneself are options, and it is especially nice how the text chances from "you could be an artist too" to "I could be an artist too" depending on if one is listening to the narrater or reading by oneself, making the experience that much more personal. Also be sure to tap around the pages to find various interactions that are sure to delight readers of all ages.

I am a huge fan of all the Kidztory apps, and I am happy that these developers are such a prolific bunch as they have released may classic tales, as well as some modern stories, and I have been impressed with each and every one of their releases. Here, they incorporate a very interesting use of the iPhone's camera or saved photos, letting the reader choose a good picture of themselves to incorporate into this story. They make this process very easy and after finding a nice face shot, one can size it with the pinching and zooming of two fingers, filling an empty template shaped like a head. I greatly appreciate the chance to match the skin tone that will be used to make up the rest of the characters’s body attached to the photo being used, and one can also choose a t-shirt color for the character as well. A “toonface” can be chosen instead if the child is feeling camera-shy or there are no other photos to choose from.

I really enjoy this story and so does my son. It is all about the different occupations that kids can aspire to, and I really like that they run the gambit from waste disposal to artist, florist, or architect and many other jobs as well in this content-rich story. Be sure to tap the page, looking for hidden sounds and interactions that bring even more whimsy to this already delightful story book. As with the classic tales they may be best known for, this app also ends with a lovely message for kids, here about being anything they want to be when they grow up.

This app is also interesting because the method of page-turning here is a bit of a game of hide-and-seek in and of itself, as one taps a chameleon who changes colors and blends into the different backgrounds among these pages. These lizards can be sometimes hard to find and they are something I have enjoyed seeking out, but I can imagine a toddler having a hard time finding all of them or tapping one by accident, looking for interactions and advancing a page without meaning to. Swiping will work to turn pages as well, but maybe in a future update, classic arrow page turns found in the bottom corners of the screen can be an option for the very young, although I do think preschoolers and beyond will enjoy the challenge of looking for this page turning reptile.

If you find this app interesting, please note that one can also include a personal photo to create a character in Face Time With Mage Nuttimugs - Your child Is the hero of this Story! as well, another creative and engaging MyBook Kidztory app by Stepworks. You simply can’t go wrong with a Kidztory application, and I hope they continue to develop more apps for a very long time to come.