My kids don’t know much about marine life. I’m not sure why this is—maybe because we’re landlocked and don’t have regular exposure to the ocean. Or maybe because children’s book illustrators tend to favor more cuddly, furry creatures for the starring roles in their books. But I do know that I’m excited that they have a chance to read about them more in this amazing new interactive ebook.
From Anchovy to Zooplankton, all aspects of marine life are covered in A to Sea (for iOS and Android). It is a beautiful, hand painted app with lots of interactive features and I imagine your kids are going to love it.
But this isn’t simply a read-along. You can make the pufferfish puff up, the seahorses swim, and the octopus open up. Touch the bottom of each screen, and you’ll get an interesting fact about each animal. Did you know that the icefish is the only boned animal to have clear blood? Yeah, me neither.
The one aspect lacking for me was the quality of the audio when you opt to have the narrator read the text to you–it has almost an echoey sound, like someone in her living room recording, instead of in a studio. Still, kids won’t really notice the difference. In all, this is a beautiful app that will expose your kids to some underwater creatures they may not otherwise read about.
A to Sea ebook by developer The Happy Dandelion is available for iOS and Android for $4.99