Marvin eBook reader

By Spencer Riley | Updated on May 17, 2021

Rating 4.0

iPad, iPhone
Paid
age 12+

Downloadfor iOS

About Marvin eBook reader

Marvin is not just an e-reader app but there is an accessible library (click get books, OPDS, internet archive / project Gutenburg) with thousands of free books. Marvin ebook reader is available for download on iOS device.

Marvin eBook reader Review

E-readers are great for children. Reading little and often is the best way to improve a child’s vocabulary, comprehension and creative writing skills. Being given a wide variety of sources to inspire is what Marvin does best, and many of the books are available free. Although most are aimed at adults, the classics are here and there are such a vast amount of texts to be discovered, you will be spoilt for choice.

Related: Best eBook Reader Apps

Again, parental supervision is recommended as there are books included with a more adult theme and more adult language. Once a book has been downloaded children can read at their own pace and put the usual e-reader tools into practice such as looking up words, book marking pages etc.

The creators of this app have really thought about accessibility. Texts can be made larger or smaller, fonts changed (including a choice of dyslexic friendly fonts), background colours can be added and brightness can be altered easily. These aspects combined, make reading much more enjoyable. Pictures can be added in some books.

The Deepview option on the app allows children to search for references to individual characters, places, key themes and key events. This makes scrolling through a whole chapter to find relevant sentences, a thing of the past. Be careful here as by hopping around a book in this way can mean that children lose the meaning of the information they find so it is a tool best used after the book has been read.

Reading settings

The program has a great design. It is felt literally in every button. Even in Out of the Box mode, reading books is extremely pleasant. The program has a detailed help, written in English in a beautiful font. The help is divided into sections and read it is a pleasure. Especially note the possibility of dividing the screen for reading in landscape mode.

Fonts in Marvin built more than two dozen – it will satisfy even the most demanding reader. And the font can be selected separately for text and headings.

Well, you should pay attention to the tab with gestures (Gestures). Gestures in Marvin are configured for the host – this is the right approach. It is convenient to change the brightness of the screen with gestures or flip through 5-10 pages.

In Marvin, there is a fun and interesting possibility of reminders. The user sets the amount of time after which the program will remind you that “it’s time to take a break” or “time to watch football”.

Library in Marvin

Here are the following options:

Share – send a book, markup or dictionary file to the mail.
Collections – adding books to the collection.
Actions – various actions associated with the book. For example, mark a book as “unread”.
Metadata – change the metadata of the book. Here you can change the name, the author, the number of the book in the series and even change the author. Separately, it is worth noting the opportunity to make the book a beautiful cover (button Cover Image).
Delete – delete the book.
In the library, Marvin has the ability to manage collections. And you can add one book to several collections.

Downloading books to Marvin on iPad

In Marvin, there are several ways to download books:

Through iTunes, as it is done by other non-native readers (Stanza, Shortbook, etc.) Connect the iPad. In iTunes we find it. We go to the section “Programs”. Where the “Shared Files” is looking for Marvin and uploading there files of books. The Epub format is supported.
Download books via Dropbox. It is enough to log in to the program, that is, to allow Marvin access to Dropbox. The procedure is simple.
Email – open the epub files directly from the standard iOS mail client.
OPDS – Marvin perfectly supports OPDS. There is even support for authorization, which is required on separate sites. What is OPDS, a list of catalogs with books in a separate review. Perhaps this is the most convenient way.
Download books through the built-in browser. No less convenient way than OPDS. It is only necessary to find references to the Epub books themselves, but this is not a problem.

Overall Marvin has something to offer all. It is a great app to encourage reading in less inclined students and wider the horizons or more able or keen readers. Parents can add their own books to the library and show children just how satisfying reading can be. It is an app that can be used from 11+ students (supervised) to A level and beyond.