OXFORD BOOKWORMS: Readers for iPhone & iPod Touch How to buy Each title is £5.49 and can be bought via iTunes. This compares with £6.25 for the text only reader & £9.26 for the Audio CD Pack.
About Oxford Bookworms "The most consistent of all series in terms of language control, length, and quality of storytelling." David R Hill ELT JOURNAL REVIEW, 2008
32 titles are now available as apps for reading on the iPhone & iPod Touch (32 are also available for iPad). A full list of titles in each format is available here Extra features Interactive glossary, quiz, audio reading which can be synchronised with page turns, links to worksheets etc. Ease of use Generally excellent. Touch-screen features - glossary, page turning, continue reading - all perform smoothly. Limitations are those of the iPhone itself - the small back-lit screen is not ideal for extended reading. Design Simple but generally effective. Excellent illustrations though not enough of them! For higher levels there are large blocks of unillustrated text (the first 16 pages for The Thirty-Nine Steps, for example). With some higher level texts covering 250+ pages this might be another barrier to creating an enjoyable reading experience. http://www.eslreading.org/
Strengths: Easy to use, excellent content, practical format for a popular platform, beautiful illustrations, elegant page design, tried & trusted graded text Weaknesses: some titles too long (for iPhone), too few illustrations, price a little high, would work better on dedicated e-ink reader and/or larger screen. Verdict: Great to see this essential series of graded readers in this format and a generally impressive product, particularly when dealing with the shorter books at the lower levels. Apps work very smoothly and the illustration are superb though some of the texts need more visuals to encourage comprehension. Could perhaps have added value with more features and/or a lower price per title. And would be good to see similar apps for other platforms in the future Guide to Graded Readers: http://tiny.cc/y1t7c