Little Bits of Life: Planet 316 Story Bible and the companion Planet 316 Story Bible App Review

Time for a different kind of Bible storybook. This one is produced by Planet 316 and WorthyKids/Ideals. We are using the new Planet 316 Story Bible and the companion Planet 316 Story Bible App. The book sells for about $13.62. This is not a bad price for a standard hardback book that is in full color. However, this is not a standard book and it has an app. The app that goes with the book is free to download.

This Bible storybook is like nothing we have ever seen before. With over a 100 of our favorite Bible stories from both the Old and New Testaments. Yes, we have read these stories before but never like this. When you purchase the book you can download a Free app that features augmented reality. The app will allow characters and objects to jump out in 3D with audio. When we first got the book I played with it and I was a little worried it that it wouldn't interest them. I was wrong wrong wrong. They have loved reading these stories with the app. So much so that they have read it several times now. We downloaded the app on both our IPad and IPhone. We like it better on the IPad because the pictures are bigger. We found the app to be very easy to use. When the app opens you will find some instruction you just flick the screen to the left and it will scroll through them. Then you hit start and hold the phone or tablet over the first page of the story. It will scan the page and then the images will jump up off the page. Once the images can be seen in 3D you can tap them to interact. Like if I touch the elephant I can hear the elephant sound, some of the characters will talk to you etc. The only bummer we found is that the app does not read the story to your child.

This book is 298 pages and includes all our favorite Bible stories from both the old and new Testaments. It has 104 stories which I think is just about all the important stories younger children should hear. Starting with the story of creation and ending with the return of Jesus.

The quality of the artwork in this book is really amazing. The images are nice when you just read it as a standard book. But when you introduce the app it opens a whole new door. I can see this book really getting a visual child interested in reading. If you take a look at the picture to the right you can see one of the image jumping off the page. I am surprised that it photographed as well as it did. Now if you were to tap that 3d image you would hear some sounds that went along with that part of the story. Like the sound of camels or elephants. My girls had a great time with this book and they even enjoyed showing it off to their younger niece who is just learning to read. Being able to interact with it really drew her interest and she asks to read the book with them every time she comes over now.