Price: $1.99  Score: 10/10  By M. Schusterman

This app comes with a warning – if you let your child read this book, you may have a very hard time getting your iPhone back.

How to Train Your Dragon, a DreamWorks Animation hit movie, is available as an e-Book app for kids thanks to FrogDogMedia LLC.  One of the keys to designing an app that children will actually use and enjoy is simplicity, and thankfully, this app has just that.

Touch the icon and the app automatically opens in landscape mode (better for little hands, in my opinion). Cue the opening credits music! (And don’t forget the headphones if you’re out and need to keep the kiddo occupied.) All your little one has to do is tap play. To adjust the settings, there is a small “information” icon in the top right corner. You can turn the narration on and off, set the pages to turn automatically, and choose whether or not to include the highlighted text option.

The story itself is, of course, adorable, and the pictures that accompany the story are straight from the movie. The text appears at the bottom of the screen, and as the narrator reads out loud, the words are highlighted in chunks of phrases. This happens to be a proven way to improve reading skills, making this app more educational for kids than watching the movie itself. After a few watches, try turning off the narration to see how much your child can read on his own.

Even with the automatic page turn, your child can turn the pages back and forth with a swipe. Tapping doesn’t interrupt the story, however, so touching the pictures won’t be disruptive.

It’s educational, it’s fun, it’s guaranteed to keep your child occupied, and it’s only two dollars. I highly recommend adding this to your children’s app collection.

How to Train Your Dragon requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A small fee was paid by the developer to expedite the publication of this review.

Price: Free   Score: 7/10    By Shaun Campbell

With a format war quickly building in the eBook world, Kobo is a not a new device – but rather a new distribution service for the eBook. Formerly known as Shortcovers, Kobo is being marketed as a free cross-platform download, available on Blackberry, Palm Pre and Android, in addition to the iPhone. There is also an Adobe Digital Edition, which allows you to read eBooks on your desktop or other compatible devices.

With big-dollar backing from Borders, Instant Fame and REDgroup Retail, Kobo is one of the most promising new international eBook retailers. Kobo currently offers over 2 million books with New York Times bestsellers capped at $9.99, as well as over 1.8 million free books.

There are hundreds of categories available to browse, from Art & Architecture to Mystery & Suspense. You can also discover new books from lists that include Oprah’s picks, Prize Winners and The Globe and Mail Bestsellers, among many others.

One of the current issues with Kobo, albeit a minor one, is the purchasing system. In-app purchases are foregone for a quick segue to a credit card payment screen in Safari. While a convenient way to circumvent the 30% Apple cut on in-app sales, the to-and-fro between Kobo and the browser is frustrating.

The use of the app itself is enjoyable – you can flip through the pages just as you would a real book, or scroll through pages vertically if you prefer. You can customize everything – both font and font size, paragraph justification, line spacing and colors.

Kobo is a great way to test out eReading without having to buy an expensive device. With the release of a tablet device from Apple looming, both the popularity of eBooks and services such as Kobo look certain to grow.

Kobo requires the iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with both iPhone and iPod Touch.

Price: $2.99    Score: 9/10    By Sarah Parker

When people take a sip of their morning brew, not too many think about the history of coffee or its cultural significance. Whether we realize it or not, there is more than meets the eye with your average cup a’ joe. Learn all there is to know about your favorite drink with eBook: All About Coffee. All About Coffee is #4 in the eBook Media Viewer Series developed by Procypher Software Company.

The book All About Coffee was originally written in 1922 by William Harrison Ukers (1873-1945). Uker’s book chronicles the etymology, pharmacology, and origins of coffee, and every coffee-related topic in between. All About Coffee is a fascinating narrative that explores the relationship of coffee and culture in Western, Eastern, and Middle Eastern countries. There are 36 chapters in this book, complete with artwork from the original book. All About Coffee is full of interesting information that you can share with your friends. Here are a few tidbits from the book:

1. At the time the book was written, many Arabs averaged 25 to 30 cups (findjans) of coffee a day.
2. In some places in Africa, the natives eat coffee beans raw.
3. Sweetened, iced coffee (also called mazargran) originated in Algiers, then became popular in France.

The ebook version of All About Coffee maintains (for the most part) the format of the original book. The typeset, citations, and images are very well structured. The Table of Contents page allows the user to choose the chapters they wish to read first. Anywhere in the book, you can tap the center of the screen to bring up the Viewer Controls, which include a back button, bookmarks, a night-time mode, and font size options. All About Coffee can be read in both regular mode and landscape mode. When switching between landscape mode and regular mode, your place in the chapter can move slightly (usually within a paragraph).

eBook: All About Coffee is a delectable book to read, and the app works well to conveniently bring the book to iPhone users. Learn some morsels of info from the book that you can share with your friends over coffee!

eBook: All About Coffee is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch; requires OS 3.0 or later

Price: Free    Score: 9/10    By Caroline D’Ascoli

For those fellow bookworms out there this app will transform you into the proverbial kid in a candy store.  If you’re anything like me, browsing in the book store and adding to the ever growing list of ‘books to read’ is almost as much fun as reading them.  While it doesn’t offer the good old fashioned smell of parchment, IndieBound satisfies the urge to browse in a surprising way.

Unlike the national chains and the NYT Best Seller lists, IndieBound provides recommendations and best sellers from independent booksellers. It breaks down the recommendations into monthly “Great Reads” and “Notables” and provides daily best sellers by both type and genre.  While some of the best sellers are the same ones you’d find in Borders or Barnes & Nobel, it primarily highlights those books that go unnoticed.

It syncs with the indiebound.org website and allows you to access your community account in both locations. My favorite feature is the ability to create and sync your wishlist (a.k.a. ‘books to read’ list) and add to it as you browse.

Looking for a specific book? The Book Search feature allows you to find the book you’re after and locate a local independent bookseller who carries it.  This way you support your local booksellers and funnel money directly back into your community. Don’t know where your independent booksellers are located? There is a Store Finder feature that either uses your current location or can search by address or zip code. Can’t be bothered with getting off the couch browsing for books? No problem, there is a purchase online option as well.

With a snapshot of the cover and a synopsis provided by an Indie Bookseller you’ll be adding to your list in no time.

IndieBound requires the iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later and is compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch.