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A Princess Tale: An Interactive Book is a universal, interactive storybook with a princess theme, a nice choice for pre-school children who favor princesses.

This is a simple, colorful story of a maiden getting ready to go to the ball to meet the prince.

Here, players can choose one of three maidens who live in different styled homes found on the first page.

The storyline of these three variations is very similar, each ending as the maidens win the prince's favor and a “True Loves Rose” from the prince, but different enough for young children to enjoy each variation, as a few puzzles or other interactions are included that differ from each other nicely.

I am personally on the fence about a lot of princess-themed items that girls today are bombarded with. I see great importance in familiarizing children, both girls and boys, with classic Grimms fairy tales and such that often contain princesses of some sort, but I do wonder if girls who are overly fixated with wanting to be a pretty princess can also develop a sense of entitlement - issues I have avoided being the mother of a single boy.

For this reason, I appreciate that here, included text and interactions explain that every maiden must clean her room and complete her chores before going to the ball, as well as collecting food for animals, feeding them on the next page. This subtle message that even fair maidens have responsibilities is a refreshing sentiment among princess-themed activities, with tasks included such as completing puzzles by placing toys in their correct places or arranging flowers in a vase in order to continue.

I also like how in this app it is explained that maidens also collect enough food for animals and others that they love so that everyone has enough food to eat. To collect food, players need to pick carrots from the ground, filling a basket; shake bushes; and collect the fallen fruit or tapping a bird to drop apples into a basket - the most difficult of these activities.

This app, not deviating too far from the classic princess stories that children do gravitate towards, includes a scene where the princess decides which of her wardrobe of available dresses are not fancy enough to impress the prince. A fairy godmother arrives, with a choice of gowns and accessories to choose from.

It is worth pointing out that the dresses and other details to choose from are bright and fun, as well as age-appropriate fancy clothing choices which parents will feel comfortable with, as simple, pretty silhouettes are included without showing too much skin and can be somewhat nightgownish looking, in a good way. It is nice that the outfits created here will be included in the rest of the story - a nice touch.

Other interactions include fixing the carriage that the maiden is taking to the ball - a nice inclusion showing the maiden doing her own repair work, with the reader's help to continue her on her way to the ball.

Once at the ball, players are asked to create a place setting, introducing this aspect of table manners, nicely including some hints if needed, as well as a thoughtful test to see if this maiden has been paying attention to the prince whom she presumably is interested in. A finger-painting section that young children will have fun with is also included.

Personally, the idea of the prince giving “True Loves Rose” to the maiden of his choice has a bit of an “ick” factor, as to me this is reminiscent of an element from reality TV, but hopefully children young enough to enjoy this app will know nothing of this comparison.

Although this app does not avoid all the pitfalls I take issue with in generic princess stories based on Cinderella - mainly seeking the affection of the prince without knowledge of his being a good person or a worthy mate as well as overly-stressing the importance of dressing in order to impress, I do like the included interactions, not just for their play value to the youngest app users but also for the inclusion of a work ethic and the importance of manners.

Santa’s World is a fun Christmas app for iPad with some nice sections which kids will enjoy.

Children will have fun dressing Santa with choices that include hat, mustache color, jacket style and color as well as shoes. To change clothing, tap the clothing selection that one would like to choose and then tap the selection offered at the bottom of the screen, making clothing changes easy for kids to do themselves as Santa is styled center screen.

A fun puzzle section is included where kids take pre-fab parts of toys and arrange them into a puzzle outline, be it a house, rocket ship or guitar, each including some fun animated moments to reward players for a job well done. These puzzles have a lot of "grab" to them, as these pieces are dawn to the correct area of these puzzles, nicely aiding in young children who made need some help.

In this app's matching section, children are asked to match the ornaments on a Christmas tree to a given color, as one taps the colored ball decorations until their colors correspond to the color in question.

The Workshop section teaches the basics like numbers or colors in a way kids will enjoy, as toys labeled with numbers, colors or items such as musical instruments are offered on a toy shelf, as the player is asked to pack a specific item in the bag. I really enjoy that because here, as in the rest of this app, spoken prompts are offered as well as visual cues - a nice touch.

Basic letter recognition is also taught as letter balloons sail through the sky, with items or animals being carried along as well. Tap each letter to hear the name of the object being transported with the balloon, such as “duck” for the letter “d” or a block of cheese for the letter “c." This is a cute section, but I would like to hear the name of the letter as well when tapped - not just the object in question.

Young children will enjoy what this app has to offer, possibly even after Christmas has come and gone. Fun and upbeat seasonal music is included kids will also have fun with, but it would be nice in a future update, one could also mute the music if they wish.