The Happy Dandelion App
We were contacted by Joshua and Donna Wilson, a husband-wife team and The Happy Dandelion creators, who asked if we’d review their picture book app. Because apps stray toward the advertising sector, we always review the apps carefully before we feature them on the blog. As you all know, we are not for-profit, and we are truly here for the love of teaching books, but after previewing the app, we decided it was too lovely not to share.
The books featured are picture books for all ages, and we were able to pull our sons (who are toddlers) onto our laps, and they loved pushing parts of the books to see the words spin, bump, and twist. It was fun to navigate the books because there were so many places to push, and we felt like we’d won for each time that we pushed the right places!
The first book we reviewed was The Sometimes Road. This was a calming book that is directed more for adults and is about the twists and turns of life. It was a story that will be appreciated by kids, too! There were many quotable sections that felt very zen to us. The music in the background was peaceful, and the storyline discusses the difficulties and triumphs we experience in life. The artwork is absolutely stunning. Ricki accessed this book after yoga class, and it was the perfect time to look at it. It kept her heart calm and made her feel peaceful.
We also accessed The UnStealer, which was very different from the first book. The watercolors popped, and there were many fun twists to this story. It is about an UnStealer who steals, “uns,” which was a very fun play on words. Our kids loved this one, and we think this would be very fun to use as a read-aloud in class. It would be great to take student volunteers to push different parts of the book during the read-aloud.
Check out The UnStealer in action:
We loved playing around with The Happy Dandelion app and think it would be a great resource in a classroom. This would be a great app to load onto an iPad for kids to use during independent reading or to use in groups at a reading station. A special thanks to Joshua and Donna Wilson for recommending their app to us. We had great fun!
and 