The app itself is pretty simple. Maybe too simple.
There are "hot picks". Today they are Alive, Beaten, and City of Bones. When you select one of these, you get more info (not a ton).....lists it has appeared on, ability to post to Twitter/Facebook a way to "favorite" it (which just keeps a running list in the app), and a short summary. There is also a "find it" button. When I clicked it, I saw that the book is available at the Great River Regional Library in St. Cloud. I was happy this wasn't just a way to connect me to booksellers, as I incorrectly assumed it would send me to Barnes & Noble or Amazon or something. This was what I saw when I clicked on Beaten.
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| Pretty simple indeed. |
The "heartiest" part of this app would be the search button. It allows you to look for books by title, author, genre, year, award, or book list. I think this is GREAT! It's easy to use, and I like the idea of guiding kids to the lists to see what other people have liked, depending on the listmaker.....however......
I didn't find the author or title search to be as complete as I'd hoped for though. For instance, when I entered Lois Lowry, the only result was The Giver. When I specifically searched for Gathering Blue, I got nothing. The list finder didn't include the Newbery Award either, which I found strange?
This app seems to be on the track to being VERY cool.....but it has a long way to go. It's just not comprehensive enough to be a great help for kids looking for new books to read (if I were adding an app like this to the iPads at my school, I would probably use Goodreads instead, or have a webclip of Your Next Read, which is super cool for kids selecting books).
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