Epic! is an app and website that provides children’s books in the form of ebooks for a monthly membership fee of $4.99 a month. However, you can try Epic! FREE for one month. Which is what I recommend. Because after I share what I think are the pros and cons, it all comes down to whether or not your child likes their selection of books.
Review: EPIC Books for Kids App
PROS: Things We Like About Epic!
1. I like the “Read To Me” option because it lets kids follow along in the text while hearing the words.
2. It’s nice that Epic! offers some “Audiobook” options, too. However, you can’t read along with these stories which I dislike for picture books because you really need the pictures to comprehend the story!
3. Epic is FREE for teachers and students can connect to their teachers to earn classroom reward points.
4. Every time you click on a book, you’re told the age range, estimated reading time, and brief summary. This is helpful information to decide if it’s in your interest and ability level.
5. Where ever you stop reading, Epic! marks your place so if you want to pick the book back up, you can get started from where you left off.
6. Epic! records the time it took to read a book. This is good and bad. Good for parents to make sure kids don’t skip to the end and read a chapter book in 30 seconds but bad if you leave your browser or app open since it will show you took 7.9 hours to read a few pages. (see below)
7. Kids will like that they can search by key words and by many categories such as recommended, popular, adventure, fantasy, funny, sports, mystery, world history, science, and more.
8. The resolution on this app is excellent.
9. Whether good or bad, I’m not certain but there are lots of videos — some about picture books and some, informational.
10. It’s a great way to bring books with you on the go. The app works on iOS, Android, and tablets.
CONS: Things We Don’t Like About Epic!
1. Finding books isn’t the easiest — especially if you don’t want to see books that aren’t in your reading level.
Looking for chapter books for JJ (and you’ll see from the image below that I put in her age as 11 and category interests), we were shows a lot of picture books and easy readers, as well as books in interest categories that she didn’t check.
I’d like to see only books for her particular age. (I did find one summer list with ages but it was quite short.)
2. The selection of books isn’t extensive. While there are some great books for sure, this app is missing so many more choices it could have.
3. I wish this app had a highlight and look up feature. (We love that about our Kindles which both my kids own.)
4. I’m not sure Epic! is being updated. The last update of “new” books was September 26, 2016. It’s 2017, guys. What’s up with that!?
Final Thoughts
Is it worth the $4.99 a month to have access to the books in their library? It probably depends on your child and what type of books he or she wants to read. Try it for the free month to see what you think. As for us, we are not going to spend the money.
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