Butterfly Kisses by Cathy Lane Is a Must-Have Storybook for iOS

There’s nothing quite like the comfort of a bedtime story before turning in for the night. This timeless ritual is an important part of childhood, and the iPad is a wonderful way to have plenty of stories accessible at the touch of a finger. Butterfly Kisses is a highly interactive story that’s a must-have addition to any storybook collection.

Butterfly Kisses takes children on an adventure through the animal kingdom, exploring each animal and their habitat. The story focuses on answering the question, “Which animal would give the best goodnight kiss?”

Like most interactive storybooks, Butterfly Kisses lets parents and children choose whether to have the story read to them or read alone. I really like the fact that narration is very clear and easy to understand. Also, the book is highly interactive and filled with playful animations and sounds.

One thing about Butterfly Kisses that really caught my eye is that it includes “This book belongs to…”, which is a tip of the hat to old children’s books. This is a fantastic way for kids to customize the book and truly make it their own.

Navigating Butterfly Kisses is very simple. Pages are turned via the arrows on each side of the screen, and the table of contents can be accessed by locating the butterfly button at the top of each page. There’s even a ladybug button that activates all animations at once.

Butterfly Kisses features various activities, as well as a fun and interactive story. Kids can solve a fun drag-and-drop tiger puzzle, complete a writing activity, and practice their art skills via the fun drawing activity.

It’s worth noting that Butterfly Kisses is actually a recreation of a book written in 1995 by the same name, except this is a fantastic way to bring the story to life. The app’s description says, “Butterfly Kisses was originally published 1995 by Margaret Hamilton Books as a hard cover book. This interactive version is completely re-designed and illustrated with beautiful handmade paper sculpture illustrations.”

Also, Cathy Lane, the developer of Butterfly Kisses, has included a few doownloadable PDF supplements for parents to print out. This is a neat way for kids and parents to get even more out of the story. The PDFs can be downloaded from the official Butterfly Kisses website.

In terms of value, Butterfly Kisses is definitely worth every penny. This is certainly one of the best interactive storybooks for iPhone and iPad that I’ve seen, and the best part is the story itself goes beyond the app.

Butterfly Kisses requires iOS 4.3 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.