Tinybop. Me: A Kid’s Diary by A. Seixas

Authors

  • Allison Sivak

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20361/dr29363

Abstract

Seixas, Ana. Tinybop. Me: A Kid’s Diary. 2016. Apple App Store, https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1126531257?mt=8. 

Ages 3-7 (depending on parent assistance)
Cost: $2.99


This app allows young children to create a digital diary filled with their own writings, photos, audio recordings, and drawings. The child creates an avatar from a varied array of options for skin colour, hair colour and style, facial features, and accessories. The app then encourages the child to respond to prompts, such as, “A song about me would be titled…,” “This is an interesting fact about my family,” and, “If I were an animal, I would look like this.” Some questions require a textual response, while others ask the child to draw, record, or take a snapshot of their response to the prompt, thereby taking advantage of the affordances offered by a tablet or phone. Other activities include the option to create a family tree, to create avatars of the child’s friends, and to answer all kinds of questions about the people in the child’s life. A child can draw, record, and photograph daily activities, such as their life at school.

Children can use the app to explore their own ideas, experiences, and feelings through both serious and silly questions. A Kid’s Diary takes a simple process and makes it even more accessible to quite young children. Ana Seixas’ illustrations use eye-popping colours, with good use of contrast and negative space to make clicking easy. The language of the questions is simple and displayed in a large font. Younger children should be able to use this app with the help of caregivers reading the text for the children’s answers. Caregivers should know that the company foregrounds their privacy policy on the developer site, noting that the app does not collect information about the users through the application itself. It is highly recommended as a fun way for children and their caregivers to learn more about themselves and the world they observe around them.

Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars
Reviewer: Allison Sivak

Allison Sivak is the Public Services Librarian at the University of Alberta Libraries. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Library and Information Studies and Elementary Education, focusing on how the aesthetics of information design influence young people’s trust in the credibility of information content.

Published

2018-08-10

How to Cite

Sivak, A. (2018). Tinybop. Me: A Kid’s Diary by A. Seixas. The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.20361/dr29363

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2018): Summer

Section

Book Reviews

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