Best iPad children's books

The classic tale of Grover fearful of turning each page is not only a true re-creation of the paper version, but it also becomes interactive. Grover will challenge your child to knock down brick walls, untie knots, and more. Each animated element mirrors the physical book perfectly. This app does a great job of balancing the story and interactive parts to keep your kids entertained. If you loved this book as a child yourself, you will not be disappointed in this modern, digital version.

What's better than a fun book with Grover? The sequel of course, adding in Elmo. With the addition of the red muppet, this book easily stands head-and-shoulders above the first one by adding fun banter between Elmo and Grover. Tasks for children to complete are enhanced with a simple combination lock and ungluing pages so you can keep going to see the monster. Once you're set with the first Monster book, you'll want to add this one to your iPad also.

Children love hearing familiar voices read to them, so getting audio and video into a book greatly enhances the experience. A Story Before Bed comes with "The Frog Princess" and then through the company's website, you can record yourself reading other classic tales. There are dozens of other stories you can record for $6.99 apiece, or $29.95 for 25 books. This is a great product for parents that cannot physically be with their children to tuck them in every night.

Dr. Seuess is a must-own author for any child's collection of books. This collection of five books contains The Cat In The Hat, One Fish..., and more. Each story is quite faithful to the original book and illustrations, which keeps them familiar if you have the physical books also. Like other book apps, you can choose the "Read to Me" feature to have the story read by a narrator, but in an interactive way. Kids can tap objects in the picture to have them named, and turn the pages when they want.

Toy Story's app is a steal at free and should be a first-download on every parent's iPad. This app isn't just a book; it's a cinematic, interactive reading experience. Kids can have the story read aloud or follow at their own pace, or you can record your own voice so you can "read" to your child when you're away. In addition, you get movie clips, games, sing-along songs, finger painting, and character voices from the movie. It's hard to find a child that doesn't like the adventures of Woody and Buzz, so with this free app you'll be a parent superstar.

A classic book can greatly benefit from the updating it gets by becoming an app. The 150 year old Lewis Carroll story comes to the modern era with this app containing both the abridged and unabridged version. Children interact with the characters in the story by tilting the iPad to make Alice larger or smaller, throwing tarts at the Queen of Hearts, playing with the White Rabbit's pocket watch, and more. If the price is giving you sticker shock, there's a free, lite version to test out before buying the full version.

Little fans of the Shrek movies will love the return of all the familiar characters in this e-book. This particular story finds Shrek in an alternate universe where he never rescued Fiona or met Donkey and his other friends. Like most other children's books, this Shrek app has a "read aloud" feature and can have the pages turned automatically. All of the characters are voiced by the actors from the films, such as Mike Myers (Shrek) and Eddie Murphy (Donkey).

It's always a difficult job to help quell the fears of children, especially when it comes to being afraid of the dark. This bedtime story app may sound scary, but it actually helps to teach kids to deal with their nighttime fears. It introduces the ideas of good creatures, good monsters, and heroes to counter the scary creatures. It's been a three-time Apple pick, so you have a glowing endorsement by the Big A. This is a universal app, but the iPad version adds in a coloring book feature.

This beautiful picture book app is an educational game rather than a story. Each richly rendered picture represents a letter of the alphabet. Hundreds of pictures all starting with that letter are artfully woven together within the big picture. There are several different games to play in the app involving finding various objects.

This app is an amazing example of the enormous potential for e-books on the iPad. It is doubly fitting that it's a story about books! Before even reading the book, I would recommend watching the animated short film. If the film reminds you a Pixar film, it should; the director of the app helped create conceptual characters for "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life." After witnessing the stunning animated presentation, it will become more apparent how impressive the book is, with its film-faithful in-app interactions.

Dandelion is a strong interactive story about bullying and the power of imagination. The illustrations are very similar to the style of illustrations in Where The Wild Things Are. This is a great app for a child in elementary school and can help them build confidence. There are multiple interactions to discover on each page such as blowing dandelions from your screen, avoiding the bullies, and sending well wishes to loved ones. It is available in five other languages aside from English and is exclusive to iOS.

Penguin Leveled Readers isn't necessarily a children's book per se, but an app that houses the Penguin Leveled Readers books. A book of each level is included and there are over 125 books available to purchase from within the app. Each book is narrated or you can record yourself. All in all, this is a great app to have for your young reader.

Discover the story of the infamous Sasquatch and teach your little one that they shouldn't judge a book by its cover in Bramble Berry Tales - The Great Sasquatch. The lovable characters come to life when you touch them and the narration is a delight in any of the four included languages (try listening to it in the native language).

Finally, get your little darling ready for bed with iOS version of Goodnight Moon. Your child will have so much fun with over 200 interactions to discover. There are even options to personalize this app by "writing" your child's name in this book, interacting with the in-app photo booth, and printing from the sticker book.The narration is an ideal tone for bedtime and is accompanied with a calming piano soundtrack.