![]() ![]() ^ "Digital book platform Epic! raises US$8 million".2016 Best App for Teaching and Learning and The Best Website for Teaching and Learning (The American Association of School Librarians).Epic! is a member of publishing industry trade groups, including: the Children's Book Council, the Independent Book Publishers Association, the Educational Book & Media Association and the Audio Publishers Association. Publishing network Īs of May 2017, Epic! had 250 publisher and video provider partners, including HarperCollins, Macmillan, Candlewick, National Geographic Kids, Smithsonian Enterprises and Encyclopædia Britannica. Users can search for books, videos and quizzes on Epic! based on age, keyword and reading levels. The Epic! app offers personalized recommendations based on a child's reading level and interest. Books are available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and French and includes bilingual options. Titles and series include BIG NATE, Garfield, Warriors and The Chronicles of Narnia series. As for the public domain classic without any pictures, those could always come in handy when putting your kids to sleep.Books are available in read-to-me and audiobook formats and include both non-fiction and fiction titles, covering a subjects and themes such as: STEM, language arts, social science, history, music, art, science fiction and DIY. With a growing library and active app development, the service should keep improving over time. Parents of kids 4 to 12 who have an iPad should definitely check out the free trial, and if it gets your kids to read more, the monthly price is worthwhile. Most of the catalog looks just like you’d expect children’s books to look on paper. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a children’s edition of Aesop’s Fables without illustrations before now-Epic suggests it for ages 3 to 5, but it’s just 179 pages of text, not a single drawing or picture. The font is about what you’d expect from a Kindle book for adults, and with just black justified text on stark white pages, the presentation is so boring that the story loses a little magic. For example, the classic Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling has an age recommendation of 6 to 8, but it’s entirely without pictures. Some of the books you’ll remember from your own childhood are sadly unadorned. No pictures in Aesop’s Fables? Say it ain’t so! There’s no search function, since chances are everyone would search for Harry Potter, which Epic doesn’t have (yet?). You can isolate age groups, and scroll through Netflix-like categories such as Mysteries, Sports, Nonfiction, Fantasy, Picture Books, and so on. While the selection is large and mostly decent, it’s set up for general browsing more than finding something specific. If you tap the top of the book, it goes back out to the control page, where you can drop in a bookmark if you aren’t going to finish the book all at once. All you can do when reading a book in full-screen mode is zoom in and out with a finger-pinch. This is a reading app for reading-the books aren’t animated, and they don’t read the story to you. The collection is curated by Epic’s experts in children’s literature, so the selection is pretty quality, although the first book my own son selected is nothing but a picture book of various donut varieties. ![]() That also means you need a network connection, but you can save books for offline reading, so they’re always available on the go. The books stream, so they load instantly with no waiting for a download. Parents can see how much their kids are reading, which books they’re looking at, and all the badges they’ve earned. Besides earning badges, reading books unlocks extra options for customizing your profile: extra avatars, patterns, and themes. Of course, kids earn lots of badges by simply reading books, but also by customizing their profiles and using the app’s other features, like rating a book or adding it to their favorites list. The badges are adorable, a great way of gamifying reading for the kids. ![]() ![]() Drilling down into a child’s profile, the parent can also see exactly which books the kid has read, how much time they spent with each one, and badges they’ve earned. ![]()
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