'My Little Pony: Party of One' iPad App Review

"My Little Pony: Party of One" app

Everyone who loves My Little Pony -- and that definitely includes CC -- knows that Pinkie Pie loves to throw parties. She's the most gregarious of the bunch. So it's a big surprise when all of her pony friends -- Apple Jack, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy and others -- are too busy when she invites them to one of her bashes.

That's exactly what happens in the new iPad app My Little Pony: Party of One ($2.99). CC and I were able to check out this new interactive 17-page story app for review, and it definitely has a lot of features that are great for beginning readers.

The graphics are adorable and look just like an episode of Friendship Is Magic. The app even features the voice of the "real" Pinkie Pie from the show.

What's great for new readers is that the words show up, highlighted even, at the bottom of each page. If a child needs to hear the word again, all she has to do is tap it. Also, the characters can animate and speak -- and speak again -- every time you tap on them.

As a bonus, parents can even track their child's learning progress.

While CC loves MLP and Pinkie Pie, too, she might have been a little old for this particular app. The story really focuses on beginning readers, and she's a little beyond that. Also, she thought there would be more than one story on the app, so she found it a bit repetitive when she tapped on characters.

I wonder, though, if that's the nature of apps -- or how kids relate to them. Of course, they don't expect regular books to have multiple stories, but somehow apps seem to promise a rabbit hole's worth of entertainment.

But that's another, much bigger, story.