Mad About Books Book Fair - June 27-July 3

Assortment of books await at the Market!Market! Book Fair 2011

Plus chapters and chapters of fun activities:

Storytelling . Arts & Crafts Corner . Reading Lounge

Claim freebies from California Berry between 3PM to 5PM

for every P500 purchase at the Book Fair.

June 27 to July 3 . Activity Center

Market!Market!

More Pinoy Storybook Apps for the iPad

Tina, my 8-year-old niece and review partner, reading Pagpagayuk

This post is sequel to: The Magical Shirt - Storybook App for iPad.

Here are some more storybook apps that Tina and I have gone through:


Mariang Sinukuan: The Goddess and Keeper of Mt. Arayat
A bilingual Filipino Classic with a lot of values kids can learn from.  Tina didn't want to go through this book at first because by the title she thought it was in Tagalog. But when I showed her there was English she gladly tried it out. 

Mariang Sinukuan Storybook App for iPad

The illustrations are very good and clean, but not animated.  The user interface is easy to use, can be rotated to landscape or portrait, is easy to navigate from page to page, but lacks the highlighter feature which marks the words as they are read like in The Magical Shirt. 

Easy-to-use Interface

Each page tends to have a lot of text which Tina found to be too much to read.  So she prefers the "watch and listen" mode which is like a video version of the book with good animation and music but with lower resolution graphics and no interactivity. Yes, Tina missed the interactivity because in one part of the story where some items turned to gold we tried tapping on them to see if they would turn into gold but nothing happened.  I guess she got this idea from another storybook she likes, Hansel and Gretel Interactive Storybook, where the characters and objects move in relation to the story when they are tapped.

Pages have good and clean illustrations but with a lot of text.
For Tina this was too much to read in one page.
So she prefers the 'watch and listen' mode instead.

Pagpagayuk: The Magical Bird of Bukidnon
Another bilungual Filipino Classic with a storyline similar to Ibong Adarna.  

Pagpagayuk - Storybook App for iPad

The illustrations are vivid with bright colors but not as clean as Mariang Sinukuan nor animated like Ibong Adarna and The Magical Shirt.  

Illustrations are vivid with bright colors

The user interface is easy to use but again lacks the highlighter feature so Tina prefers the 'watch and listen" video mode but with lower resolution graphics and no interactivity.

Easy to use interface

Considering that Mariang Sinukuan and Pagpagayuk can be downloaded for $1.99 each with no interactivity, I would just go for The Magical Shirt or Ibong Adarna which are not just free but animated as well or with interactivity included.  


Also the digital capability of the iPad can be maximized if difficult words can be made tappable and lead to a glossary of words, for both English and Filipino. 

The Magical Shirt - Storybook App for iPad

My 8-year old niece Tina absorbed in The Magical Shirt

Meet Tina, my 8-year old niece and review partner.  With her help we have gone through almost half a dozen storybook apps for the iPad already. 


Tina is an avid reader - the school library has certified her as a top borrower in the recently concluded school year.   She's also an avid iPad user, that is, the number one user of her grandma's iPad since she has no iPad of her own.


After learning about storybooks on the iPad which I downloaded for her, she has tried them out and enjoyed them tremendously.    One of them is The Magical Shirt.

The Magical Shirt - Storybook app for the iPad

For me the The Magical Shirt is Vibal's best storybook app so far.   The graphics and animation are simply amazing!   With bright colors and creative rendering, The Magical Shirt makes the reading experience just like watching an animated feature.  

Illustrations are beautiful, with bright colors, clean lines, and animated too!

Unlike Ibong Adarna, The Magical Shirt is bilingual - in both Filipino and English - so Tina loves it.  The user interface is very easy to use and Tina has no problem navigating through the story on the iPad, which can be easily navigated from page to page. The highlighter feature is very useful--Tina follows the words as they are being read.   The voice recording and music make for a very engaging "read-to-me" experience which Tina prefers over the "let me read" feature.  Juancho is adorable, which makes his story very engaging and contains values that kids can learn from.

Highlighter feature marks the words as they are read

One thing that Tina missed though is the interactivity.  She likes Hansel and Gretel Interactive Book which had a lot of tappable characters and objects so she tried tapping on Juancho while he was combing his hair but nothing happened. Apparently there is no interactivity in the book, but I learned Vibal recently included a separate interactive portion which we have yet to try.  It would also be useful if difficult words could be made tappable and lead to a glossary of difficult words.  

All-in-all, The Magical Shirt is a very good, highly recommended storybook app.  Congratulations to Vibal for making this happen.  With more apps to come, reading to your kids will never be the same again! 


The Magical Shirt can be downloaded for FREE from the Apple App Store.

Ibong Adarna - First Pinoy Storybook App for iPad by Vibal

First Interactive Storybook App for iPad
by Vibal Publishing House

I was very impressed with this new interactive Storybook App for iPad -  the first one released by Vibal Publishing early this year. 


First of all, the graphics and animation are beautifully drawn - with bright colors and clean lines.   Listening to the interactive storybook felt like watching a short animated film. 

Ibong Adarna Screen Capture - Beautifully drawn graphics makes reading feel like watching animation.

Next, in terms of usability, the app is very easy to use and navigate through.  You can either read at your own pace, or have the story read to you.  The voice recording is very clear and engaging.

Easy to use interface - just swipe to go to the next page

Next, there is already some interactivity involved that is linked to the story and helps make it more immersive.   Though I would have loved to have a lot more interactivity throughout the story, I guess it's already well worth it given that it can be downloaded FREE.  Plus it's a first try for Vibal.

Ibong Adarna Screen Capture - Interactivity helps make the story more immersive.

In terms of the content, the story of the Ibong Adarna is classic, one that also contains values that kids can learn from.  


However, I did miss some features regarding this app could have been added including English text and recording (which I believe can be easily added by the developers). It would also be easier for kids to follow the story if there is a highlighter that marks the words as they are read. (However I think this has been addressed in the Vibal's recent app The Magical Shirt)   Lastly, the digital capabilities of the iPad can be maximized if difficult words can be tapped and made to bring you to a glossary of words at the end of the book. It's usually too bothersome to stand up and look for a dictionary when we encounter difficult words but with the iPad this inconvenience can be a thing of the past.


All in all, Ibong Adarna is a great storybook app, one that can make Filipino classics accessible to everyone, not just to Filipinos,  and help develop love for reading among children and adults alike. 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms



Pinoy Booklover visits Shanghai

I recently visited Shanghai and this is what I brought back in return - a copy of the original Chinese text of Romance of the Three Kindgoms, a Chinese classic. 

Popular Bookmall, Super Brand Mall, Shanghai

How I found it was an experience in itself. We visited the Super Brand Mall near the Oriental TV Tower and went up to the 8th floor where the "Popular Bookmall" was. I approached one of the sales assistants and asked for "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in English. All I got were blank looks. Fortunately I had looked up the title in its original Chinese charcters before coming to the bookstore.  

Here is the title in Traditional Chinese:

and in simplified Chinese:

They took one glance at the title and led me straight away to the classics section where they had several editions in Chinese, both in paperback and hardcover, illustrated and not. And this is what I picked - the Illustrated, hardcover edition - only for ¥48.00, or about Php 320.00 - surprisingly cheap for a book of that quality! Made in China!

Romance of the Three Kingdoms - Sample Illustrations

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is acclaimed to be one of the Four Great Classical Novels in Chinese literature. It is a historical novel written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century about three powerful states which battle each other for over 100 years to achieve dominance.

While I stood in line to pay for it, I saw another person buying the book, too, but the English version!  For those interested, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is available in English at Fully Booked.

By the way, I was amazed at the titles that they had in the bookstore, a wide selection, and all in Chinese! They even had a Chinese version of the Twilight series!

Twilight Saga in Chinese



Cry, The Beloved Country - by Alan Paton

I have a goal (more like a dream!) to finish reading all the Top 100 Books of the Last 100 Years. This is now my 34th. So here goes!  (Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Cry, The Beloved Country was written by Alan Paton, a South African, who tells a story about the lives and sufferings of the black people under white man's rule in South Africa.  When Cry, The Beloved Country was published in 1948, South Africa had a population of about 3 million who were white (descendants of Dutch and British immigrants) and about 7 million who were from black African tribes.  The following year, a policy of "separate development" was instituted by the white population who feared domination by the black majority. It became widely known as Apartheid, the Afrikaans term for "separateness".

I found Cry, The Beloved Country to have been written with so much honesty and truth that it touched me in many ways. At the heart of it is South Africa, the central character. But aside from this, it is also a book about many enduring values and that enrich our lives and make us Christians.  Values and truths are exactly what I look for in a book.  I would like to talk about some of these values here:


First, I found it to be filled with love and hope.  


Cry, The Beloved Country may be a story about South Africa, but it struck me because it might have been the story of the Philippines as well.  Just as it was in the novel, there is the wide gap between the rich and poor, between the elite and the working class, between the descendants of foreign immigrants and the natives.  

"Because the white man has power, we too want power....Some of us think when we have power we shall revenge ourselves against the white man who has had power, and because our desire is corrupt, we are corrupted, and the power has no heart in it."

But what Alan Paton said about this "great divide" in Cry, The Beloved Country had so much love in it that it gives us hope: 

"There is only one that that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power. I see only one hope for our country and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it."

Isn't this very apt with the situation of our country today?   There are several allusions to Abraham Lincoln in the novel, who also wrote extensively about the conflicts between the blacks and whites in America then.


Next, I found it to be filled with optimism and hope despite suffering. Here is one of my favorite quotes:

"Your anxiety turned to fear, and your fear to sorrow.  But sorrow is better than fear. For fear impoverishes always, while sorrow may enrich."

And here is another: 

"But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering - so in my suffering I can believe."

Next, it is a story about forgiveness and coming together for the common good.


Cry, The Beloved Country is the story of a local parson, Reverend Stephen Kumalo, who leaves his local community for Johannesburg to search for his son, who turns out to have killed a white man.  It so happens that the victim is the son of Mr. Jarvis, Reverend Kumalo's white neighbor.   In the story,  instead of harboring hatred and anger,  Jarvis decides to help Reverend Kumalo's local community of Ndothsheni.  Reverend Kumalo had paid a visit to the village chief and says:

"Many of our people are [in Johannesburg], and I have thought that we should try to keep some of them in this valley....by caring for our land before it is too late. By teaching them in the school how to care for the land. Then some at least would stay in Ndotsheni."  

The chief knew about this problem but didn't know how to solve it.  In the end it is Jarvis who arranges for a damn to be built and sends for an agriculturalist who teaches the people modern farming methods so that there would be grass and milk once again.

Johannesburg, South Africa

The themes of urban overcrowding and disintegration of traditional family values were always on his mind.  Again, sounds familiar--sounds like home.   Alan Paton once wrote for a Johannesburg journal that African crime stems from the disintegration of tribal life and traditional family bonds under Western rule. It is also from the lack of development and opportunity in the country side.
  


Lastly, I leave you with this passage which struck me so much, I thought Alan Paton was talking about me, as a Filipino born in a family with Chinese heritage.  You only need to change "South African" to "Filipino", and "South Africa" to "the Philippines".

"It is hard to be born a South African....One can see, as I saw when I was a boy, the reserves of the Bantu people and see nothing of what was happening there at all.  One can read, as I read when I was a boy, the brochures about lovely South Africa, that land of sun and beauty sheltered from the storms of the world, and feel pride in it and love for it, and yet know nothing about it at all.  It is only when one grows up that that one learns that there are other things here than sun and gold and oranges. It is only then that one learns of the hates and fears of our country. 

I was born on a farm brought up by honorable parents, given all that a child could need or desire. They were upright and kind and law-abiding; they taught me my prayers and took me regularly to church; they had no trouble with servants and my father was never short of labor. From them I learned all that a child should learn of honor  and charity and generosity. But of South Africa I learned nothing at all."

For those interested, there is film adaptation in 1995 starring James Earl Jones as Reverend Stephen Kumalo.