Dr. Seuss Deluxe Books

What is Dr Seuss Deluxe Books app?

Dr Seuss Deluxe Books app is a container for a library of Dr Seuss books.  You can build this library up, starting with one free book, through an in-app purchase for each of the available books.  Learning activities, narration, animations and more features that engage kids as they learn to read enhance the app and its stories.

What we love about Dr Seuss Deluxe Books.

The iconic imagery of the classic Dr Seuss books makes an impressive transition to app format in Dr Seuss Deluxe Books.  The pages appear to display the original artwork, but their high definition and smooth animations suggest faithful recreation or some other tech magic.  Sound effects accompanying the on-screen action sound just right for the stories and add to rather than distract from the tales.

The stylised animations suit the artwork well and don’t jar with the classic look.  The panning and zooming of the camera add drama to the unfolding story as the reader’s attention is focused on different parts of the story.  Extra effects, like rain in the Cat in the Hat story, make some scenes especially characterful.

The built-in learning activities get kids to spell and identify words used in the stories.  They won’t replace dedicated apps for this type of learning, but they are meaningful inclusions in this app for variety and encourage children to think about the words.

The books looked great on the iPhone and iPad used in this Dr Suess Deluxe Books review.

What skills does it improve?

With their single-syllable words, short sentences and rich imagery, Dr Seuss’s created his books as primers— early reading books for children.  Recent approaches to developing literacy may not incorporate these books directly, but no reading will harm kids’ development.  Kids who read the Dr Seuss stories will consolidate and grow their literacy ability while developing a love of reading.

What age is it appropriate for?

When it comes to reading books, children’s ages are less important than their current reading level.  Dr Seuss Deluxe Books has supportive features to help kids who might still struggle to read the content independently.

The app suggests an appropriate US Grade Level for each story, and these range from kindergarten to grade 3—roughly ages 4 to 8

Is Dr Seuss Deluxe Books app easy to use?

The app makes it easy to select from the available books—they can be sorted alphabetically or by grade, and readers can toggle whether a book is a favourite.  The app guides new users through interacting with the stories. 

How will students benefit?

The distinct style of artwork and the unique rhythm and whimsy of Dr Seuss’s stories have always attracted children to the books.  In this updated presentation of them, kids will be drawn into the story with the moving images, the promise of interactive exercises, and the fun of the expressive narration.

How will teachers benefit?

This app looks great mirrored to a class display, making an entertaining shared reading lesson.  Teachers or kids can read the story and trigger the animations to keep the whole class interested. 

Having up to 17 books on a single device results in an instant class reading library that is easy to store and is very economical on space.

How will parents benefit?

Dr Seuss wanted to help kids develop their reading skills, and his stories have never been more accessible or supportive than they are in this app.  A narrator reads each page as the words are highlighted in time with the speech.  Kids can prompt the narrator to repeat the whole thing but, something not seen in many book apps, they can also tap on individual words to hear them spoken.         

Parents have the option of looking at how their child has used the app.  They can see how many books have been read, for how long, how many pages, and how many words kids have tapped to hear again.  This feature is behind a gesture-based parental lock as the data can be reset, which parents won’t want to happen.  This lock might put off younger readers, but older ones will easily bypass it.

Teachers could also use this feature as they can easily reset the data between users.  However, the app would have to be used by only one reader between resetting the data and accessing it.

What can Dr Seuss Deluxe Books improve on?

The app helpfully has a guide to show its readers how to interact with the stories.  The instructions appear as a text overlay that is also narrated and is helpful for first-time users.  Also beneficial is that subsequent users can reset these hints

However, while this works for the app in, say, a school setting, it could become a little annoying for users who will be the only ones to use it.  Each time the user downloads a new book, it goes through the guide again.  An option to skip this entirely would remove what might be a minor irritant for some users.

In-app purchases can be a problematic payment mechanic for schools to administer.  An app that includes all of the books for a single price would solve this problem and likely be a popular option for teachers.

How much does Dr Seuss Deluxe Books cost?

You can download Dr Seuss Deluxe Books for free, and it comes with a complete book: Yertle the Turtle, which has all of the features included in the premium books.

What is included with the free version vs. paid?

A total of 17 Dr Seuss books are available to purchase for the app.  Each is a separate in-app purchase allowing you to choose the order you get them or concentrate on favourites.  Each brings the same level of polish and quality to the app.

Is Dr Seuss Deluxe Books safe to use?

There are no advertisements, even if you stop at the free app and the included Dr Seuss story. The stories selected for this app exclude those that reflect unacceptable aspects of the society and time in which they were written. 

As with many longstanding written works, Dr Seuss’s stories have attracted deep analysis by literary commentators, and a few claim to have identified unwelcome underlying themes in some stories. 

Whether or not they are right will never be resolved, so it is up to each adult buyer to decide.   However, should they exist, such themes are unlikely to be detected by early readers who will only see the surface meaning of any story they read.

Overall rating of the app.

The historical popularity of Dr Seuss’s books means that if you are interested in getting them for your kids, you’ll likely have some familiarity with the content.  If you don’t, the free story will go some way to showing you, and, as this is a story that would cost money to buy in a physical form, it really is worth downloading the app to get hold of it. 

Few children’s books have adapted their stories and imagery so characterfully, attractively, and usefully as those available in Dr Seuss Deluxe Books app.  If you’re a Dr Seuss fan, definitely download this app.  If you’re not, you should still take a good look. 

You can download Dr. Seuss Deluxe Books on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.