It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a children's book for the iPhone and iPad based off the the classic Halloween Charlie Brown story. In the book, Linus and Sally wait for the Great Pumpkin, a fantasy similar to Santa Claus that Linus believes in, while Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang to trick-or-treating and attend Violet's Halloween party. In addition to the story, The Great Pumpkin also lets you create an avatar that looks like a Peanuts character, dress him/her up in a costume, carve pumpkins, and more.
The book included in the Great Pumpkin has a great design and has the look and feel of an actual book. For each scene, there may be several sections of text to read and instead of showing all the text on the book at once, the text is displayed at the bottom of the screen and you can turn pages of text without turning the entire page. The original voice of Charlie Brown, Peter Robbins, narrates the story as you read along.
Each page in the book has great illustrations that can be mildly interacted with. Most things you touch will wiggle and many of the characters will repeat their lines from from the story. If you tap falling leaves, they will grow in size and move to the "front" of the book. Sometimes there are other interactions available, like playing piano with Schroeder or bobbing for apples.
In addition to the story, It's The Great Pumpkin also lets your child create a custom avatar that looks like a Peanuts character. You can choose between different skin colors, hairstyles, head shapes, clothing, and more. All of the Halloween costumes must be purchased with coins or candy. You can buy coins as in-app purchases and candy is earned by completing achievements. For example, when I tapped on enough leaves in the story, I earned 6000 pieces of candy.
There is also a section of The Great Pumpkin that lets you carve your own pumpkin. You child will be really excited when s/he sees their personal pumpkin appear in story mode.
The good
- Choose from over 1 billion creative avatar and costume combinations to create your own Peanuts character
- Go trick-or-treating with Charlie Brown and the gang
- Carve your own pumpkin, bob for apples and play Schroeder’s piano
- Touch and drag objects to make them “spring” to life or tilt to watch them slide and move
- Objects magically pop out of the page to delight little and big kids
- Jump to any page in the book with the handy table of contents bookmark
- Educational features such as word and note highlighting to help improve reading and musical skills
- Hear individual words spoken with the tap of a finger
- Original dialog from the 1966 animated classic
- Captivating narration by Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown
- Charming soundtrack featuring music and sound effects from the original holiday special
- Earn candy to buy costumes by complete achievements
- Universal for iPhone and iPad
The bad
- Page turning sometimes isn't responsive
The bottom line
It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a great childrens book to read with your kids this Halloween. It's fun, interactive, educational, and funny. The bonus of being able to create an avatar and carve a pumpkin makes the app more than just a book and is sure to provide your kids with a lot of Halloween fun.
It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is currently priced at $2.99, 40% off.
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