Reading Eggs

Digital picture books can be some pretty useful tools, and I'm not just talking about just downloading books onto iPads and Kindles. There are many digital picture book apps available for beginning readers in order to enhance literacy learning.

Reading Eggs (www.readingeggs.com) is a digital picture book app that my elementary school utilizes for its students. The app has many online reading games and activities for the younger
readers. As the students get older and learn to read, they can move on to Reading Eggspress, which has digital books available for students to read and utilize.

Reading Eggs will send students through a series of activities that are supposed to help their fluency and vocabulary, as well as their comprehension. There are rewards along the way for the students to motivate them to continue learning. For the younger and older students, Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress is fairly simple to navigate. Nearly everything is 'clickable.' I've found it to be a good program for the younger and older.

As the younger students progress to Reading Eggspress, however, they get avatars. In order to make it more personal, students can create their avatars however they like. While a great concept, many of my kids will spend an entire session dressing their avatars in different clothes, as well as changing their looks.

While Reading Eggspress does have titles available from which to choose, the number of titles is limited. The books on screen look like books and the students click to turn the pages. The students are able to listen as they read along, but the interactivity between the reader and the program seems to be somewhat limited.

The important thing, though, is that the students are able to progress at their own pace. It's easy for them to go back and reread (and hear) pages if needed. I have also found that, despite shortcomings, Reading Eggs holds students' attention well, even those who tend to be easily distracted.

Overall, I would say that Reading Eggs seems to be a good program. If you're looking solely for interactive books, I would suggest that you keep looking. However, if you're looking for engaging activities and reading, Reading Eggs would most likely be a good fit for you.