What do you think about having an entire library at your fingertips? This is the first thought that popped into my mind when I was asked to test the FarFaria App for Android. This app is listed as a “magical place where stories live…where your child’s perfect story awaits.”
In the About section we are told we will “discover a world of fantasies and fables…in a not-so-far away place”, which lead me to embrace this app as an easy to find story-telling library for my kindergartner. I was given a free 6-month subscription in order to garner my thoughts and opinions on the FarFaria app, however there are a few different purchasing options for the everyday user. The FarFaria app for Apple and Android devices, gives families unlimited access to over 700 illustrated children’s books, and 5 new books are added each week. The FarFaria app offers a monthly full-access subscription at $4.99 a month, or if you decide you’d love to use it long-term there is an annual subscription of just $39.99! You can download the app for FREE to give it a spin. The free version only allows for one book to be read per day so get ready for your kids to ask for more.
Upon downloading the FarFaria app you will want to do a few things…
- Create a login
- Check which reading level’s apply to your child
- Start exploring!
When you arrive at the home page after clicking the FarFaria app on your Android device you will see a home screen with quite a few book suggestions, separated into three or four categories that change throughout your subscription.
My daughter didn’t spend much time on this page as she really enjoyed exploring the different “lands” of stories.
One of her most visited lands, Mt. Make Believe, is pictured above. Some of the other “lands” include: Fairy Tale Falls, Animal Kingdom, Adventure Island, Bed Time Bluffs, Preschool Playground, Genius Jungle, Classics Grove, Looney Lagoon, and Sing-Along City.
Once your child clicks the specific area to enter, your child will be directed to a pictured listing of books, much like the home page, for them to scroll through. There is only one downfall to these listings, the books are allowed to be in multiple categories. For example, if your child would like to check out the Classics Grove they may be seeing quite a few of the same books that they read along with on Adventure Island.
My daughter had a little bit of an issue with starting the same book over again after swapping “lands” and continuously re-started the same book because she liked the cover and upon realizing it was the same, exited the story. Other than that, the different “lands” are very engaging for younger readers and push them to expand their usual reading horizon.
As soon as your child clicks their chosen book they will be directed to the title cover and given a couple of choices. The FarFaria app will ask them if they would like the book to “AutoPlay”, to “Read to Me” or to “Read Myself”. The difference between these options is slight, but takes some time for a beginning reader to differentiate.
The “AutoPlay” options allows your child to simply watch the pages turn while listening to the narrator read the words that are highlighted as he/she goes, the “Read to Me” version only takes away the automatic page turning and the final option is just like reading your own book at home.
My daughter usually goes for the “Read to Me” option because she likes to look at the pictures a little longer than the narrator allows, but the “AutoPlay” option is also very nice for a beginner.
When you open a book, there is a toolbar at the top of the page with a pause button for when using the first two read options, a start over, a favorite, and the usual exit. The favorite button gets used quite a bit by little ones!
Evaluation
Pros:
- the different read options for all ages
- fantastic graphics
- exuberant narrators
- sing-a-longs! Need I say more?! They are most 5-year-old girl’s dream
Cons:
- the lack of current/well known authors
- multiple categories per book
- that the buttons stating the read options do not say what they do when you toggle over them
The FarFaria app is free available on both Android and iOS. You can read one story everyday for free or to access over 700 books with new books being added each week, FarFaria offers a $4.99 cancel anytime subscription, which also allows for offline reading.
A Mom’s Perspective
The FarFaria App is great for all pre-school to early school-aged children in that it gives them the ability to choose any book, regardless of reading level or genre, without ever having to arrive at the library. App’s like this are giving our kids a chance to read so much more than they may get a chance to on a regular basis. We spend a TON of time at the library and book stores enhancing my kids love for reading, so take it from me…this app has saved us a lot of travel time! As a mom you will find your kids wanting to read a book on your phone instead of playing the latest (and almost always exactly like the others) game made for Apple and Android devices.
All in all, FarFaria is a great app for kindergarten age kids! It has a lot of different reading choices, as well as sing-a-long’s, which we LOVE! Also, the graphics are bright and fun, and the narrators have wonderful voices. It would be amazing if FarFaria could get some of the uber-popular kids series/authors in their library as well. Mo Willems and any Pete the Cat books would definitely be a hit!
* I was given a 6 month subscription to garner my thoughts and opinions on the FarFaria app. All expressed opinions are my own.
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