• Editor Rating

  • Rated 4.5 stars
  • Highly Recommended

  • Quality
    Editor: 90%
  • Education
    Editor: 80%
  • Entertainment
    Editor: 100%
  • Value
    Editor: 100%
  • Child Friendly
    Editor: 90%

Review Summary:

Journals of Mama Mae & Lee Lee is a unique app created in part by Alicia Keys with a variety of activities, stories, and music that will engage and entertain children for hours.

Overview

The Journals of Mama Mae & Lee Lee is an app that combines interactive stories, music, creativity, and writing into one virtual play space for children of all ages. Children will be able to explore various areas in Lee Lee’s bedroom including her music box (which plays inspirational music written and performed by Alicia Keys), her desk (that includes a journal to write and draw in), her piano (that can be played), and her bookshelf full of various inspirational stories. This app has a variety of activities for children to interact with and enjoy at a price parents can appreciate.

Features include:

  • Interactive stories
  • Inspirational music written and performed by Alicia Keys
  • Journal for writing and drawing
  • Virtual Piano

Quality

Upon opening Mama Mae & Lee Lee players will be greeted by Lee Lee who gives children a first hand look at her room. The app interface resembles a 3-D version of Lee Lee and her bedroom and allows players to explore various areas of her room including her piano, music box, desk where her journal is located, and her bookshelf. These areas are the interactive components of the app that will intrigue and entertain children as they move from one area to the next.

The audio and visual components are of very high quality and with music by Alicia Keys you would expect nothing less. The graphics are also great and the 3-D quality gives the app a very real feel that is unlike many apps out there today. The various activities are also great for children and the developers have done a wonderful job of creating a one stop shop for music, writing, games, and stories for children to enjoy.

The only downside to the quality of the app is the speed of which some pages/activities load. There seems to be a little delay as the page loads, thought it doesn’t interfere with any of the actual activities.

Education

Journals of Mama Mae & Lee Lee is far more of an entertainment application than it is educational. With that said there are areas that could be used to assist children with practicing information or skills they already know. For instance, the virtual piano shows the notes on a musical scale as they are played and could be used as practice for children learning to play the piano. The journal also allows children to practice drawing and writing (or typing) with various pens and pencils while the various stories included can assist children with their reading skills as they follow along with the narrator.

Entertainment

There are so many things to do in this app that it may be difficult for children to decide where to begin. The free version of the app gives children access to the virtual piano, journal, one song in the music box, and a portion of one of the stories with various other songs and additional stories for purchase. Even without purchasing the additional songs and stories there is enough in the app to keep children drawing, writing, and creating music for quite some time.

The journal provides writing prompts that asks users questions about themselves and provides space for them to write their thoughts and answers. There are also plain pages that allow children to use various drawing utensils (and colors) to draw, write, or type anything that is on their mind. The options for free writing/drawing or structured writing is great as it provides children the freedom to choose how they want to use their journal.

Lee Lee’s bookshelf offers 4 books, 3 of which have yet to be released, and one that provides access to one game and only a portion of the story. Children are likely to enjoy the free portion of the book so much they will want to purchase the remainder of the story and games for further entertainment and I have no doubt parents will oblige.

Value

Journals of Mama Mae & Lee Lee is a great value considering the many features you get in the free version. Despite the fact you don’t have access to all of the songs and stories, there are still many options for children to enjoy in for free. For under two dollars parents may choose to purchase the full version that offers additional games and features.

After viewing what this app has to offer for free I think parents and children will agree that it is worth the additional purchases for the added features included in the full version to enhance the experience.

Child Friendliness

In addition to being a great app with many features, Journals of Mama Mae & Lee Lee is also extremely child friendly. It is easy to use, intriguing, and will engage children with the music, stories, and journal features.

There aren’t any social media links or flashy advertisements to distract children from the app, but there are a few in app purchases available. The purchase links are located in the “shop” area of the app as well as at the end of the free version of the story so parents will want to be aware of that. Besides the in app purchase options this app is great for children of all ages.

Journals of Mama Mae & Lee Lee is a unique app created in part by Alicia Keys with a variety of activities, stories, and music that will engage and entertain children for hours.

Editor rating
Rated 4.5 stars