Tacky Camps Out On iOS

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Tacky Goes to Camp by Oceanhouse Media (universal) is an adaptation of the popular penguin story book series by author Helen Lester and illustrated by Lynn Munsinger in a story app for the iPad and iPhone.

Children have adored Lester’s unique and affable penguin Tacky character for more than two decades since the first of the series was published.   Including Tacky Goes to Camp, Oceanhouse Media has now redesigned five other titles of Tacky the Penguin series for the iPad and iPhone.

Tacky and his penguin pals Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly are all attending Camp Whoopihaha — where Tacky brings his rare individualism to a group of penguins who do everything, from rock climbing to swimming, synchronized and together.  The climax of the story happens when the penguins sleep out beneath the stars with a campfire, storytelling, and s’mores.  Tacky protects his friends by staying up late, overeating his share of sticky marshmallows, and inadvertently scaring a bear away with his sleeping bag over his head. 

Tacky Goes to Camp’s interface is easy – tiny fingers can swipe the screen to turn the page, as well as tap the screen to highlight words associated with each picture.  Another educational feature is young readers can tap a paragraph to have the narrator read it out loud again. 

The narrator does a fabulous job of adding a rich story telling component to Tacky.  In fact, the sound animation is one of my favorite elements of the interactive story app.   The penguin sound effects – cute animal noises — detail the storytelling and give credibility that the penguins really are having a ball at camp.

Tacky Goes to Camp features three ways to read and enjoy the story: In ”Read to Me” the narrator reads the story, each word highlighted. A tap of the finger makes the words associated with illustrations pop up, such as “Tacky” and “S’mores.”

In ”Read it Myself” children can choose to read the story on their own, at their own pace. They can still turn the pages and activate the highlighted words by tapping on pictures. On ”Auto Play” the narrator will read the story, with the pages flipping automatically. Kids can still tap the pictures to see corresponding highlighted words.

What readers will like best about Tacky Goes to Camp, and what I would classify as a standard to most Oceanhouse Media apps, including the Bippolo Seed  and A Wocket in My Pocket, is the elegance of each illustration, text, and sound.  The simple OM books style maintains both the integrity of the story and the fundamentals of reading for both young and older readers.  Another must-have for any children’s digital library.

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