I’ve always tried to instill a love of books in N and it seems to be working so far. He’ll choose books to look at on his own, insists on certain books at bedtime, and loves it when he finds a new book that he likes. He’s only just started thinking about liking letters (mostly recognising those in his name), so I’m hoping over the next year before starting school, he’ll start being more interested in what the words actually say.
So I was interested to see what the Sparkup Magical Book Reader was when offered it for a review, to see how it might help. Usually I’m a book person through and through, although I do have a Kindle myself, but I’m the only person who reads to N at home, so it’d be nice for him to have someone or something to read him stories if I’m out at bedtime.
It’s a really simple idea. The book reader records any book (they recommend picture books) that you’re reading, saves it, and then it will read the book back to the child by recognising the page from the camera.
When the Magical Book Reader arrived I was surprised at how small it was. Very neat and portable, handy if you’re going out and about or on holiday and have several children asking for different stories at the same time.
Using the book reader is pretty easy. It comes with the 3 AA batteries already included, so you can take it out of the box and start using it straight away. There’s a prerecorded book which explains what the book reader does – in very American spelling, ideally I’d want it with English spelling – the recording is a British accent not American though.
Recording is as simple as slotting the book into the holder, pressing the central button and then following the instructions. On the first recording effort, I had some problems – it tells you to press the record button and wait for the tone before speaking, but I couldn’t get a tone. It was easily solved by closing it up and starting again. The playback is a little echo-y although that might be because I recorded in our kitchen, rather than a curtained and carpeted area.
What I like is that if you go wrong, you can just re-record the page and it’ll override the previous wrong recording.
It holds around 50 recorded story books, or 250 minutes of audio, and you can download or upload your recordings to your computer. There are also prerecorded stories to download from the Sparkup website.
It’s aimed at 3 years plus, and I can see how useful this could be at helping readers who are just starting out on their reading journey. I’m not sure how much N likes it. He’d rather have me reading the story as he likes to stop and ask questions, and I want reading to be an interactive experience. With the book reader, the tendency is just to listen to it in one go so I’d want it to be an additional option for reading books rather than replacing usual bedtime stories.
You can see how we got on in the video below (I deleted N’s running in and chatting over my video, so it’s just me this time!).
If you’d like to get your hands on a Sparkup Magical Book Reader, worth £29.99, you can enter my giveaway to win one. Just answer the question in the comments, and enter via the rafflecopter widget. There are additional entry options if you want to increase your chance of winning.
Terms & conditions
1. UK entry only, over 18s
2. Giveaway closes 11.59pm 13th November 2014
3. Entries will be validated according to the rules of entry
4. The prize is one Sparkup Magical book reader
5. Winner will be randomly chosen, and will be shown on this post, with further notifications shared on social media.
6. Winner will be notified via email, and will need to respond with their postal address within 3 weeks otherwise a further winner will be drawn.
7. The winners details will be sent to the promoter/distributer of the prize, which will be sent out within a month.
8. This giveaway may be featured on Loquax, PrizeFinder and SuperLucky amongst others
————————————————————————–
Disclosure: I received a Sparkup Magical book reader for review purposes. All opinions and words are my own.
229 Comments
Winnie the Pooh
THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE
Winnie the Pooh
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Frozen
The Gruffalo
Love Superworm at the moment!
Room on the broom
My little girls’ favourite book – “That’s not my mummy”.
The Snail and the Whale
The gruffalo
The Gruffalo
Snow Bears
The Gruffalo
The very hungry caterpillar
Peace At Last by Jill Murphy
The gruffalo
The Gruffalo
Would have to be The Gruffalo
The Tiger came to Tea
the tiger who came to tea my all time favourite.
Definitely The Gruffalo here!
Snow bears we love this story
the tiger who came to tea
Cream Cake, we love that story!
the gruffalo
each peach pear plum
The Tiger Who Came to tea
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Little Rabbit FooFoo – we love that story.
Tiger came to tea
War & Peace… That should send my little one of to sleep!
it would have to be one of my sons Thomas books!
The Gruffalo
Hairy Maclary!
Hugless Douglas
Going on a bear hunt
Goodnight Moon. My daughter loves it.
Stick Man :0)
The Big Lorry – my grandson’s favourite book 🙂
Chicken Chips and Peas – my little boy’s favourite
Girsffes can’t dance
Room on the broom. My girls love it.
Our Fave – The Gruffalo
A BOOK CALLED , SHARING A SHELL
THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA
THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA
we’re going on a bear hunt.
Owl Babies
Barry the Fish with Fingers!
the gruffolo
The Tiger who came to Tea
Room on the Broom
Upsy Down Town – Sue Hendra. This seems to be requested a LOT recently.
Topsy and Tim
Puss In Boots
Room on the Broom 🙂
Riki Tiki Tavi
Clip Clop – Nicola Smee
Room on the Broom
itd have to be Guess How Much I Love You – its a favourite!
the gruffalo
A squash and a squeeze
The Gruffalo
The bfg
Snow White
My son loves anything Thomas The Tank Engine, so it would have to be Thomas The Tank Book. (:
We’re going on a bear hunt
The Cat in the Hat
The Tiger Who Came To Tea
Little Ducks Christmas
The three little pigs
The Gruffalos Child
The Gruffalo
Guess how much I love you
The GRUFFALO!
Time for Bed Little One is our favourite at the moment.
Bfg
The GRUFFALO!
Dear zoo is my daughters favourite book 😀
The tiger that came to tea
The very hungry caterpillar
the gruffolo
Cats Ahoy
The Grinch..in time for Christmas 🙂
Cats Ahoy
Peppa Pig, and thomas the tank engine, ive only one of each and the girls both want them every night! sends me to sleep! and both girls know most of the words to them anyways!
The Hungry Caterpillar
My daughter’s Peppa Pig books – it drives me mad having to read them all of the time!
The BFG!
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo xx
The Gruffalo
The Cat In The Hat x
I’ve just seen The Night Night song on the Sparkup song. This could be very useful at bed time.
Billy Goats Gruff
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
One of my son’s Oliver Jeffers books
The tiger who came to tea!
Winnie the Pooh
We’re going on a bear hunt
The gruffalo
the hungry catapiller
Would have to be a squash and a squeeze
the gruffolo, my daughter loves it
The gruffalo
The tiger that came to tea xx
Where the wild things are
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo.
pirates love underpants. my son loves the others in the series but weve never read this one
The Gruffalo
goldie locks and the 3 bears
The grufalo of course 🙂
the highway rat by julia donaldson is the favourite at the moment
Thomas the Tank Engine
the gruffalo or room on the broom
Peter Pan
Green eggs and ham as that always gets me tongue tied!
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo,me and my son love the book.
Thomas the Tank Engine – good old fave!
Peter Pan
Shark in the Park!!
It would have to be the Gruffalo, my little one’s fave at the mo xx
The Smartest Giant in Town or Monkey Puzzle…. but that’s just me! Mylah would want Gruffalo or Bear Hunt
Superworm
Tabby Mctat
The Tiger Who Came To Tea
Toy Story
The gruffalo
The Slightly Annoying Elephant
Room on the broom, my 2 year old son requests it every night.
The Gruffalo
The gruffalo 🙂
the Gruffalo
Tiddler. x
the very hungry caterpillar
Giraffe’s Don’t Dance
The hungry caterpillar 🙂
The gruffalo
Gruffalo
The Hungry Caterpillar
The Gruffalo
Room on the broom
The gruffalo 🙂 xx
Room on the broom
Stick man
The Hungry Caterpillar, a favourite of my children
Not Now Bernard – favourite in our house at the moment!
The Gruffalo!
Thomas the Tank Engine
I’d record ‘The Gruffalo’ – seems to be my daughter’s all time favourite!
one called the skeletons from my own childhood
‘The Gruffalo’ my grand daughters favourite
she even calls her Grandad ‘The Gruffalo’
Room on the broom – my daughters favourite!
The grumplump
The Gruffalo – I just love reading it!
Stick man
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo – my youngest adores it.
‘Oh Dear’ by Rod Campbell
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
gruffalo
The Gruffalo
the dinosaur that pooped a planet 😉
Thomas the Tank Engine – Tale of the Brave.
I want my mummy
i’d work my way through the mr men books!
brown bear brown bear what do you see?
It would have to be my son’s current favourite, which is ‘Aliens Love Underpants’.xx
Jack and the Beanstalk
the gruffalo
What book would you record first if you won?
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Gruffalo
It would have to be Stickman
Something like THE BFG.
One of the Elmer books x
The Hungry Caterpillar
Naughty Amelia Jane
Any Thomas tank book.
‘Elmer The Patchwork Elephant’
I think this is a lovely idea and so comforting for a child
Our first book would be ‘The Giant Jam Sandwich’ as this is a huge family favourite.
some Mr Men books
Horton hatches an egg
The Gruffalo
Hmmm I’d start with The Highway Rat I think as it’s our current fave!
Thomas the Tank Engine
The Cat In The Hat
little red riding hood
Guess How Much I Love You
The Gruffalo
Green eggs and ham
The very Hungry caterpillar.
The hungry caterpillar
The Gruffalo
Dogger by Shirley Hughes
where the wild things are
Ours would be The gruffalo and the gruffalo’s Child
The Tiger who came to tea
Topsy and Tim start school
Red Riding Hood
thomas books
The Gruffalo
The gruffalo. Xx
The Tiger who came to Tea
The famous Five storys
Squash and a squeeze
not sure, maybe one of the MR Men books
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo
the Gruffalo
Would have to be cat in the hat x
Red Riding Hood
Dear Zoo 🙂
The Gruffalo as we have heard so much about it.
Would have to be The Gruffalo.
RED RIDING HOOD
The Gruffalo
The Tiger who came to Tea
Stick Man
The Gruffalo
I would record The Tiger Who Came to Tea, it was one of my favorites growing up and my twins love it now!
I cant say because they would pick one first I wouldn’t have a say … would make a fab xmas present x
The tiger who came to tea 🙂
The Cat in a Hat 🙂
the gruffalo
The Gruffalo!
The Smartest Giant in Town – it’s the favourite of the moment!