- .iTunes APP OF THE WEEK.Three-time Caldecott Honoree Mo Willems brings the Pigeon to the digital screen with this original, feature-rich, animated app.Dont Let the Pigeon Run This App!
- “Don’t Let the Pigeon Run This App!” from Disney Stories lets you create your own Pigeon stories. Just follow as the Bus Driver asks you for your ideas—then shake.
Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App! Don’t Let the Pigeon Run This App! Based on the hilarious book Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! And the series that developed after that, Disney has created the app entitled Don’t Let the Pigeon Run This App!
Review excerpt: This language experience/creativity app puts a children’s book author (Mo Willems) inside his own app. It also invites you (or a child) to serve as the co-author/ co- illustrator. The result is a Mad-Libs style experience where you can draw elements of the story, and insert your own favorite favorite parts in the narrative. There are two primary modes from the main menu: Create Your Own Story (choose parts of the story and at times record your own voice) and Draw the Pigeon (a free-drawing experience, where Mo Willems gives you art lessons). Features include the ability to see the narration (like captions), and the ability to record your own voice, to hear it woven into the story. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
I've wanted this app forever (yes, me! My kids love the pigeon, but didn't know about the app until today). Mo Willems is a family favorite. When we lived in Brooklyn, Chris and I used to frequent the very laundromat where Trixie lost her Knuffle Bunny. Our kids now love the Knuffle Bunny books, the Elephant and Piggie series, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs... but they especially enjoy the Pigeon books.
So ever since I heard that there was a Pigeon app, with Mo Willems' voice/creative involvement, I've been interested. But the app is normally priced at $5.99! And basically, it's just a big game of Mad Libs. The bus driver asks you a series of questions -- what's something you like? the name of someone you know?, what's your favorite number?, what's something smelly? -- then a story starring the pigeon is generated. This is the same basic pigeon story we know and love: he wants something (whatever you named) that he can't have, so he tries begging (the person you named would give it to him...!), making deals, getting angry, etc.
Don't Let The Pigeon Games
Of course he can't have whatever it is, and the fun is in watching the very expressive pigeon learn to deal with his frustration. There are three levels to the 'Mad Libs' fun: on Egg, you don't contribute any answers at all, just shake the iPad and the story changes. On Chick, you make some choices. But Big Pigeon is where you get to record your own voice in the story. My 6-year-old was easily able to figure out how to work the app herself. You can save 6 different versions of the Pigeon story in your Favorite Stories vault, but there is no way to export the stories (due to copyright concerns, I imagine).After going through the story two or three times with the girls I got pretty bored. The story is essentially the same each time. On the other hand, they showed no signs of boredom; they were very amused with themselves for thinking of 'poop' as a smelly thing, and 'Marcy Zipke' as the name of someone they know. What saved the app for me was the Draw the Pigeon extra. In this section Mo Willems gives a video tutorial on how to draw the pigeon, with step-by-step line assistance that fades away after you draw your lines. He is hilarious in his instructions, making helpful suggestions such as when you make the two lines down for the neck, it really helps to say 'Nnnnnneeeeeeerrrrr, nnnnnneeeeerrrrrrr.' And it really works. Below is Brooklyn's (my 6-year-old's) pigeon!:
Don't Let The Pigeon App
In sum, this is a pretty fun app. There's no way it's worth $5.99. But if you get it this weekend, while it's on sale...? Well, Autumn actually let me TURN OFF Frozen so that she could play this with us for a while. I'd say that is worth a few bucks.