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Earth Day Caro App Review

App Info

Price: Free

Overview

Earth Day Carol takes the classic story of A Christmas Carol and turns it into a story about saving the earth. Plastic Bottle Scrooge, who hates Earth Day and isn’t concerned in the least about the environment, is visited by spirits who help him learn what happens to plastic and why it’s important to reduce, reuse, recycle. As Scrooge learns how to avoid the same fate that befell his old companion Styrofoam, kids are presented with a wealth of facts about plastic and the effect it has on the earth.

Features include:

Plastic facts
Interactive illustrations
Positive environmental lesson
Read to Me and Read to Myself options

Quality

This interactive eBook is focused less on the quality and more on the content. While it offers an engaging story and fun illustrations, it lacks some popular eBook features, such as text highlighting. Some of the illustrations are interactive, while others simply contain facts that pop up when the screen is tapped. While these facts are useful, they are contained within large text boxes that can sometimes cover the text. They also appear in a random order. The story itself, however, is cute and comes with a strong lesson and the narration in the Read to Me option is clear.

Education

After reading this story, kids will be motivated to start paying attention to how much plastic they use and will start to make sure they reduce, reuse, and recycle. The story itself does a good job of outlining how plastic is made and the effect it has on the environment. Aside from the story, the book also features many pop up facts related to plastic. These facts are presented a bit randomly so kids may not fully digest them. However, teachers and parents may want to encourage kids to go back and review the facts after reading the story. Some of them may encourage kids to conduct research or start their own recycling campaign.

Entertainment

Most kids will be familiar with the tale the story is based on which will make it easier for them to understand. It’s a fairly interesting story and kids who are concerned about the earth will particularly enjoy all of the facts inside. For those not so concerned about the earth, there are a few interactive elements spread among the pages to help keep them interested.

Value

While the app lacks text highlighting and a few of the other interactive features found in popular eBooks, it has one thing going for it that those books do not – it is free. It’s definitely worth a download, even if kids only read it once.

Child Friendliness

The app does not contain a parent section, but it does promote earthdaycarol.org on the main page. While kids cannot click on the link, they’re encouraged to go to a computer to look up the website. The website itself is fairly simple and harmless, but it does contain information for teachers and other sections not designed for kids.