Fifty years ago in 1960, Theodor Seuss Geisel — who we all know as Dr. Seuss — accepted a $50 bet from his editor at Random House. Could he write an entertaining book for children using only 50 different words? Dr. Seuss won the bet, and the result was the classic story Green Eggs and Ham. Oceanhouse Media publishes a bunch of iPhone apps based on the work of Dr. Seuss including books, games and camera apps. Yesterday, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Green Eggs and Ham, Oceanhouse dropped the price of their Dr. Seuss apps for the iPhone and iPad by 50%, for a limited time.
If you have younger children then I suspect that, like my kids, they love Dr. Seuss and they love getting to use an iPhone, so what could be better than Dr. Seuss on the iPhone? I have two of these apps — the Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham — and I recommend them to anyone who has kids.
The apps have three different modes. In the "Read to Me" mode, a narrator reads each page of the book, and you swipe to go to the next page. In the "Read it Myself" mode, there is no narrator so the app works much like a traditional e-book. And in the "Auto Play" mode, the child can just sit back and have the story read out loud without needing to swipe to change pages. In both of the modes with a narrator, each word is highlighted as it is read to help the child learn to read.
In all modes, there are fun sound effects on every page. Also, a child can tap on any word to hear it spoken, or a child can tap on any object on the screen to see hear what it is — "hat" "Sam I Am" "Sign" etc. — and to see that word briefly appear under the object.
The graphics come right from the books and are as vibrant and whimsical as ever. They look amazing on the iPhone 4 (with full support for the retina display — tap on the above pictures to see them full size), and I hear from people who use these apps on the iPad that they look fantastic on that larger screen. (The same app will work on both an iPhone and an iPad.) Also, each app does a great job of panning across the page to zoom in or out as is appropriate for the text.
There are 12 titles in the e-book series:
- Green Eggs and Ham
- The Cat in the Hat
- Dr. Seuss’s ABC
- One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
- Yertle the Turtle
- Hop On Pop
- The Lorax
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
- Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
- Gertrude McFuzz
- The Big Brag
- The Sneetches
Now that these apps are 50% off for a limited time, you can pick one up for only $1.99 (or in some cases, 99¢.) Note that the prices have been discounted even more in the past; I purchased The Cat in the Hat this past March when it was on sale for one day only for 99¢. But whether you spend $1 or $2 or even more, the apps are certainly worth it. You should have seen the look on my son's face last night after I purchased the Green Eggs and Ham app and I told him that I had a new Dr. Seuss book on the iPhone.
If you have kids, or if you are just young at heart, these apps are a fun purchase. Oh, the places you'll go!
Click here to get The Cat in the Hat ($1.99): 
Click here to get Green Eggs and Ham ($1.99):
