My Little Pony: Cutie Pox
My Little Pony: Cutie Pox gallery
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that My Little Pony: Cutie Pox is an interactive eBook based on the My Little Pony TV show and franchise. There are no additional games and activities, but kids can access a "glossary" of terms from the story, which involves a potion, a curse, and a witch doctor. Kids can choose to have the story read page-by-page, to read it independently, or to auto-play the entire story. Parents can track how many of the highlighted vocabulary words kids click on.What kids can learn
While the story is entertaining, the lack of games and activities make it fairly shallow: Kids may read through more than once, but there is nothing to keep them around over the long-term.
As an eBook that can be read aloud, kids can certainly use it to work on their reading skills. The minimal content in the highlighted words and "glossary" add little to the educational value. The addition of supporting games and/or activities could enhance reading comprehension and would help kids feel more empowered and engaged in the experience.
Parents can see which special words the kids have engaged with, but there is no other information available and no additional activities parents can use to engage kids around the learning goals.
What's it about?
In MY LITTLE PONY: CUTIE POX, young pony Apple Bloom and her friends in the Cutie Mark Crusaders are trying to earn their cutie marks by discovering their special talents. When an attempt at bowling goes poorly, Apple Bloom runs off into the woods where she falls and chips her tooth. Zecora, the witch doctor, finds her and offers to help fix the tooth, but tells her that she has to be patient in earning her cutie mark. Apple Bloom doesn't listen, and she steals some ingredients from Zecora. But when she receives multiple cutie marks for skills she can't stop performing, the ponies realize that Apple Blook has been stricken with "Cutie Pox," a rare and incurable disease. Luckily, Zecora is able to help Apple Bloom tell the truth before it's too late. In the end, Apple Bloom learns the importance of being patient and telling the truth.
Is it any good?
My Little Pony: Cutie Pox is a typical story in the My Little Pony line-up: a pony makes a poor choice, has a bad result, and learns an important lesson. Most kids will relate to the difficulty of being patient and the challenges of figuring out what you're good at in life. The "Word Round Up" at the end, which looks like a glossary, shows an image from the story for each word. There is no additional definition, and some of the images are unclear. "Hut," for example, shows the inside of Zecora's hut, rather than the outside. The highlighted words in the story suffer a similar fate. In this case, tapping on them shows an animation from the story which may or may not clarify the meaning of the word. While this is a cute addition to the digital library for My Little Pony fans, the lack of additional games or activities may translate into less value for others.
Families can talk about...
-
Families can talk about being happy with yourself just as you are. What are the things that are special about you?
-
Discuss how learning a new skill takes patience and hard work. What things are you good at? What is something you want to be better at? How can you become better? Put a plan in place.
-
Could this story be told with characters other than those in My Little Pony? How might it be the same? How might it be different?
App details
| Devices: | iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad |
| Price: | $2.99 |
| Pricing structure: | Paid |
| Release date: | January 29, 2015 |
| Category: | Books |
| Topics: | Magic and fantasy, Adventures |
| Size: | 43.30 MB |
| Publisher: | PlayDate Digital Inc. |
| Version: | 1.0 |
| Minimum software requirements: | iOS 5.0 or later |
