The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith

Rating: 5 out of 5
Reading level: Ages 3 and up
Paperback: 24 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (May 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0545261244
ISBN-13: 978-0545261241
Illustrator: Kaz Cowley
To purchase the iphone/ipad app go to the itunes store. At the time of this post the app cost $5.49 AU

The Wonky Donkey is a humorous tale about a donkey walking along the road. What is funny about a donkey walking along the road? I hear you say well the donkey is not a normal donkey, for starters he is a wonky donkey. From there the story slowly builds a hilarious description of the donkey who is rather different. For this post I am combining the review of the book (which I have purchased for nephews) and the ipad app (which my son has).

This can be read as a normal story or sung along to with the CD that comes with the book. It is a cumulative story with each page adding to the description before it. So each page reveals a new feature and the story repeats previous features plus the new one. By the end of the book you have a long but funny list of descriptive words of this funny donkey.

There are lots of funny noises like the donkey's hee-haw and funny words (well funny to a toddler or child) like stinky. As a reader you can go to town on these descriptive words and noises and have some fun by really emphasising the words and playing on it. For instance at the line "stinky donkey" I will say the sentence like the donkey is right there stinking up the place and then hold my fingers to my nose to block the smell. Then during the hee-haws say it like a donkey (or your interpretation of a donkey hee-haw) and do it really loudly.

But the illustrations make this book. They are fun and bright. Mostly they capture the cheeky nature of the donkey and the story. Katz Cowley has done an amazing job. You know when sometimes the illustrations and the story just go together? you couldn't imagine the story with any other kind of illustrations? This is one of those stories/books.

The iphone/ipad application is basic in terms of the animation, it is literally just the book illustrations with a small amount of animation (like the tale wagging or a bee flying). This for me is fine my son has apps that go wizz and bang and do stuff (see my review for Cozmos Day Off for that kind of app/ebook). You can record your own voice, the sing along version, or use the prerecorded voices (there is the author and the narrator). I personally love the narrator's voice he just really captures the story in a vivid way for a child.

As each word is read aloud by the narrator, the word highlights and becomes bigger, so your child can follow along. Also if you tap the individual word but you need to be out of the Read to me mode to do that. It is easy enough to switch between the read to me mode and no narration by just pressing the green play or stop button in the corner. There is also a basic colouring in feature but to be honest we have never used it.

I highly recommend this story, I have not met a child yet who does not like this story. It is VERY popular with kids. When I was working in a book store this book could not stay on the shelves, the minute we got a batch of books in they would fly out the door the next day. I am not exaggerating. You will not be disappointed reading this book and your kiddies will not be disappointed with you reading it.

Extras
Here is a cute video of the song "The Wonky Donkey". This is the book but in song format.

Cozmo's Day Off - ebook

Rating: 5 out of 5

Application: iPhone/iPad

Seller: Ayars Animation Inc

Price at time of Review: $4.99 AU (there is also a free lite version)

I have not been a huge fan of ebooks for children on the iPhone/iPad. Most of the ones I have downloaded were literally a slide show with pictures. For me this is was just a wasted opportunity. But Cozmo's Day off is not a narrated slide show, it is a fully interactive experience for kids and adults alike. THIS is how a children's ebook should be.

Cozmo is a little green alien who is having one of "those" days. He is trying to get to work and everything is going wrong. The story follows Cozmo's journey as he tries to get to work.

The story:

• The illustrations are amazing, they are bright colourful and incredibly detailed. Also the quality of the images and graphics is evident.
• Cozmo is incredibly adorable and likable.
• The narrator has a wonderful animated voice, it reminds me of those voices on the tv adverts from the 50's. I loved it and its the first narrated children's ebook I haven't wanted to change.
• The story is told through rhyme and is lyrical which makes it fun to read aloud. It is simple and cute with lines.

The cool stuff:

• Virtually everything on the screen can be animated. Just touch around the screen and you will be amazed at what happens. Things play music, move, jump, or in the case of the space ship steal alarm clocks. Some things need to be touched first to activate other things, and some things will say/do different things every time you touch them.
• Some pages have puzzles and games to play. I had way to much fun playing the "whack the alien" type game on one page.
• You can play with the narrators voice. By moving the slider you can have a normal voice, or you can have a robot or squeaky alien! I kept mine in the middle with the normal but slightly over the top narrators voice.
• You can record your own voice if you so wish.

My thoughts:

I am not sure if children over 5 would get much out of the story. The story is simple and cute, like wise the games are very basic. But for kids under 5 (my son is 15 months) they will love it. My son was entranced with the story and kept giving me big broad smiles as each new thing happened.

There is a free lite version which has some very basic animated features, if you want to give it a try first. I got this one first but fell in love with the story and pictures, and more importantly my son adored it so I happily paid for the full version. I would heartily recommend this ebook to anyone who has an iphone or ipad.