MeeGenius! Books app review: an app for kids, teachers, and parents

Introduction

MeeGenius! Books by MeeGenius, Inc. is a great book app for young readers. It has a huge library of digital titles that you can download and let your child “read” it to him-or herself. This app will help new readers improve their reading skills and keep all their books in one place.

What It's All About

As mentioned, this app has an absolutely huge library of books: probably close to a thousand, in many different categories. When you first download the app and register, you’ll get six free books. These books will show on wooden bookshelves just like the iBooks app. Your child will be able to choose which book to read by looking at their illustrated, brightly-colored covers. Read a book just by tapping on the cover; your child will then get the choice to have the book read or to “Read it Myself.”

I really like this app, because there aren’t any distracting interactions. Sure, kids like interactive books, and I think they have a time and a place, but when my daughter is reading, I want her to actually read, not play. Having an app that doesn’t have any unnecessary distractions is really great.

With the Read to Me option, each word is highlighted as it is spoken, to help kids learn what each word looks like. My daughter will read a book a few times, learn the words, and then start reading it herself. Her favorite right now is Green Eggs and Ham, although The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins is a close second. 

Huge Selection Of Books

Aside from the free books you’ll get automatically, you also have access to the Bookstore, which is where the hundreds of books are located. Most are not free, and range in price from $0.99 to $4.99, which is reasonable for a book. You’ll see famous books and famous authors as well as brand-new authors. Around 10 new books are added every week so you’re sure to find something you or your child wants to read.

One of the great things about this app is that once you purchase one, you can sync it across any device upon which the app is installed. This means that even when we’re out and about or on the road, my daughter can read on the iPad without having Internet access.  

Pros and Cons

Pros

• No distracting interactive games or puzzles
• Words are highlighted as they are read
• Read to Me and Read to Myself options

Cons

• I don’t have anything bad to say about this app

Final Verdict

I love this MeeGenius! Books app. I wish I had found it sooner; my daughter started junior kindergarten last September and she has been working on reading since then. For now, I’ll continue to add a couple of books a month so she’ll have a good library going. By the time her brother or sister arrives and starts reading we’ll have quite the collection!