A unique approach to the ABCs!

Baby's First Monsters: ABC is a unique approach to a children's alphabet book. Instead of the traditional objects found in alphabet books, like toys and cute baby animals, this title has an assortment of "legendary creatures and mythical monsters". There is even a complete wiki-sourced glossary to help out those less familiar with the mythical world. The creatures range from an 'Angha' (mythical giant bird with head of dog & claws of lion) to a Zilant (A winged snake/dragon like creature).

The app is separated into 3 sections plus the glossary of terms. There is the "Alliteration Academy" which contains 26 pages with each animal representing the letters of the alphabet. Then there is the "Matching Maze", which contains the same 26 creatures but this time the first letter is missing and you drag the image to the correct letter out of four choices. Finally, there is the "Singing Sword" which contains 8 pages with all the creatures listed again along with background music.

This is a very cute app and I am delighted to see narration added in this new update, especially to get pronunciation right for some of the unusual names. There is still no way to navigate within the book (beyond the home button) so a page guide would be a nice thing to see in a future update, but just the addition of crisp & clean narration makes this title feel much more complete for young readers. Both male & female narration are available.

Overall this is a well-made app with solid page turn (by arrows) and an easy to use, intuitive interface. The illustrations are colorful and engaging and above all unique in a rather crowded field of digital alphabet books. For lovers of legend and myth (and their kids) this app is sure to be a hit.

[Re-Review - Originally reviewed on August 18, 2011]

All reviews are of the app, not the platform/device. Based originally on iPad versions. Minor technical details may vary.