Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
I had never heard of the website One More Story before the opportunity came up to review it. I knew, when I looked at the site, that my younger children would really enjoy this. They love having stories read to them, and after hearing research about the importance of reading picture books to children, I was very happy to have more for them. It’s hard to find time to read lots of picture books!
I really like the selection of picture books that are on One More Story. A lot of them are older books. There are several by Ezra Jack Keats! We have always loved his The Snowy Day; that one is included, as well as several others. I had wanted to read Stellaluna to them, too, but had never been able to lay hands on a copy, so now they have heard that story. This site is especially valuable to us because of the poor selection of books in the libraries in this country.
Little Miss (age 6) is the one who has used this site the most. She learned very fast how to use it (very simple—you basically just click the green arrow when it shows up!), and can spend a hour at a time listening to stories. Mr. Imagination (age 9) usually joins her; the two of them spend most of their time together these days. Miss Joy often sits and listens in, too, although she gets bored pretty soon and wanders off, only to come back and check out the next book they open.
There are three ways to read each book. Children can have the book read to them with the pages turning automatically, or they can have the book read to them and turn the pages themselves, or they can turn the sound off and read the story themselves. When the story is read to them, the text is highlighted word by word. This helps children to see how we read text from left to right, and helps to make the connection between written and spoken word. I can’t say how well it works, because Mr. Imagination and Little Miss both read already, but I can see that it would work if children spent a lot of time using this site. You can switch between modes of reading for each book. There is also a vocabulary button, which brings up a list of words from the book. A definition and sample sentence is given for each word. And, after you leave a book, you are asked if you want to listen to one more story!
The text has been taken off the pages of these picture books; instead, it appears in the bar below the pages of the book. Sometimes, the text from one double-page spread is stretched over several page turns; in those cases, different parts of the pictures are zoomed in to go with the text that is being read.
There is a parent’s dashboard, which is useful if you want to keep track of the books your children have been reading or hearing. It shows which books they have read in the past week. This is a great site for young children who can’t get enough stories read to them! I especially like it on wet days when my younger ones can’t be outside but I don’t have things for them to do inside. They can entertain themselves quite well for a long time with these stories—if I let them, they will spend an hour at it!
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