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5 great apps for learning to read

Jinny Gudmundsen
Special for USA TODAY

If learning to read is a priority in your house, the following apps can tickle your child's interest in letters, their sounds and how to combine them to form words. By using adorable bugs, birds or trolls within zany adventures, the following apps help to make the process of learning to read interactive and exciting.

Big Bird's Words … A Sesame Street App

Sesame Street, best for ages 4-6, 99 cents, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 4)

Big Bird takes your child on a treasure hunt to find words in your house. After playing an "Eye-Spy" game in an on-screen grocery store, Big Bird gives the player a list of food words to find, using his "Word-o-Scope" — a fancy name for turning on the camera of the device. Kids scour their own house to find the words using the camera feature. The app magically recognizes the word, sparkles and says it out loud. Currently, the app has only one word list, so a limited number of words is taught.

Why this app excites kids about reading: Kids love using the camera feature to capture words. They become active learners when they hunt for words such as "cereal," and will have to study the word so as to recognize it after running into the kitchen to photograph the word on a box.

Noodle Words HD - Action Set 1

NoodleWorks, best for ages 4-7, $2.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

4 stars

Kids join adorable bugs Stretch and Squish to play with 18 words. Each word animates in a fun way to demonstrate its meaning.

Why this app excites kids about reading: Kids learn new words by playing with them as if they were toys. They will see the word "dance" across the screen; watch as a plant spouts out of the word "grow" and giggle as the word "surprise" slinks away to sneak up behind the bugs to "surprise" them. Each word has multiple animations, so kids are encouraged to touch it repeatedly as they learn to read it.

"Learn with Homer" offers interactive games, songs, poems and books.

Learn with Homer: Reading & Educational Games

Homer, best for ages 4-7, Free, iPad

Rating: 3.5 stars

This comprehensive learn-to-read app offers interactive games, songs, poems and books to teach kids that letters have sounds, letters combine to make words and words express ideas. Presented as 16 lessons, each with multiple parts, the first two lessons are offered for free. The poems, songs and books have no interactivity, and they don't highlight individual words as read.

Why this app excites kids about reading: Homer is a charming pigeon that hosts an environment filled with vibrant images and fun interactive learning games that employ solid learning techniques. For example, in addition to hearing the letter sound, players see a virtual kid speaking the sound; and then the app asks your child to record that same sound. The app cleverly rewards kids with hilarious thinking caps to place on top of their photo avatar. This well-done, sequential reading app is currently running a special offer: The first month of all access content is free (it usually costs $7.99).

Reading Raven HD

Early Ascent, LLC, best for ages 3-6, $3.99, iPad

Rating: 4 stars

Kids go on a reading adventure with book-loving Reading Raven. The five carefully constructed levels take kids from learning the letters of the alphabet to reading sentences. The app can be easily configured to present material appropriate for kids ages 3, 4 or 5.

Why this app excites kids about reading: This learning adventure cycles through 11 different interactive games set in exciting environments, including a circus and outer space. Kids learn to read while catching butterflies, playing with acrobats, matching rhyming parts of a rocket and more. Each activity is careful to reinforce the learning in a variety of ways, including sound, pictures and word associations. The app automatically adapts to the child's motor control ability; so if your kid is having trouble tracing a letter, the app will make the letter bigger.

Wallykazam! hosts four learn-to-read games.

Wallykazam! Letter and Word Magic

Nickelodeon, best for ages 4-6, $2.99-$6.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android

Rating: 3 stars

Featuring characters Wally Trollman and his pet dragon, Norville from Wallykazam, the new Nick Jr. TV show, this app hosts four learn-to-read games. Some tablet versions are $6.99, which seems steep for an app that only has four learning activities.

Why this app excites kids about reading: Breathtaking 3-D graphics present the world of Wally and friends. Kids learn about letter sounds as they rescue letters from the clutches of the mischievous Bobgoblin. Players trace lowercase letters with Libby Light Sprite to light up the night sky; and they build a tower of rhyming words to reach Gina Giant. As kids play, they earn magic words that can change the appearance of the pet Borgelorp so that he can become "fluorescent," "big" or "blue."

Jinny Gudmundsen is the Editor of www.TechwithKids.com and author of iPad Apps for Kids, a For Dummies book. Contact her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her @JinnyGudmundsen.

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