Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App! Create your own pigeon story with a new app featuring the voice of author Mo Willems.
I've wanted this app forever (yes, me! My kids love the pigeon, but didn't know about the app until today). Mo Willems is a family favorite. When we lived in Brooklyn, Chris and I used to frequent the very laundromat where Trixie lost her Knuffle Bunny. Our kids now love the Knuffle Bunny books, the Elephant and Piggie series, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs... but they especially enjoy the Pigeon books.
So ever since I heard that there was a Pigeon app, with Mo Willems' voice/creative involvement, I've been interested. But the app is normally priced at $5.99! And basically, it's just a big game of Mad Libs. The bus driver asks you a series of questions -- what's something you like? the name of someone you know?, what's your favorite number?, what's something smelly? -- then a story starring the pigeon is generated. This is the same basic pigeon story we know and love: he wants something (whatever you named) that he can't have, so he tries begging (the person you named would give it to him...!), making deals, getting angry, etc.
Of course he can't have whatever it is, and the fun is in watching the very expressive pigeon learn to deal with his frustration. There are three levels to the 'Mad Libs' fun: on Egg, you don't contribute any answers at all, just shake the iPad and the story changes. On Chick, you make some choices. But Big Pigeon is where you get to record your own voice in the story. My 6-year-old was easily able to figure out how to work the app herself. You can save 6 different versions of the Pigeon story in your Favorite Stories vault, but there is no way to export the stories (due to copyright concerns, I imagine).
After going through the story two or three times with the girls I got pretty bored. The story is essentially the same each time. On the other hand, they showed no signs of boredom; they were very amused with themselves for thinking of 'poop' as a smelly thing, and 'Marcy Zipke' as the name of someone they know. What saved the app for me was the Draw the Pigeon extra. In this section Mo Willems gives a video tutorial on how to draw the pigeon, with step-by-step line assistance that fades away after you draw your lines. He is hilarious in his instructions, making helpful suggestions such as when you make the two lines down for the neck, it really helps to say 'Nnnnnneeeeeeerrrrr, nnnnnneeeeerrrrrrr.' And it really works. Below is Brooklyn's (my 6-year-old's) pigeon!:
In sum, this is a pretty fun app. There's no way it's worth $5.99. But if you get it this weekend, while it's on sale...? Well, Autumn actually let me TURN OFF Frozen so that she could play this with us for a while. I'd say that is worth a few bucks.
Mo Willems is best known as the award winning Author and illustrator of kid’s favorites like Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, the Elephant and Piggie series and the Knuffle Bunny books. He now also has a brand new app! Pigeon Presents: Mo on the Go! where you try to fill your sticker vault by playing mini games, drawing and dancing!
The fun includes:
Draw with Mo: Use your imagination to turn a scribble from Mo into your own doodle. A child can also play with a friend with one drawing the squillem (scribble) and the other finishing the picture.
Elephant and Piggy’s Dance-o-rama: Select a combination of dances for each character and watch them go! Keep an eye out because every so often Mo will also take the stage and bust a move.
Don T Let The Pigeon Run This App Game Free Play
The Monster Maker: Enter the lab and put together your very own creature. When you are ready, flip a big switch to bring them to life and see what kind of reaction you get from Leonardo the Terrible Monster.
Knuffle Bunnies Sticker Pictures is like an early introduction to photo editing. Take a Picture (or use one from Knuffle Bunny) and it will appear in Sepia tones. Add virtual stickers of Mo’s characters or the pictures you have already created with Mo. We let the Pigeon drive our scooter in one of our creations.
Pigeon’s Dream Drive: Finally the Pigeon gets to drive the Bus ( if only in his dreams) and picks up the duckling passengers. Use you fingers to trace the route Pigeon should take before you run out of time. Just be sure to watch out for the mad cow and road blocks.
Piwi Mama comments:
We love all the Pigeon Books so this app was a bit hit in our house! There is so much to like in ‘Mo on the go’ but the highlight for us were all the extra details added to make it extra silly! Raining hotdogs, Cameo appearances from Mo, unsequential levels in the Bus driving game, and parachuting Bovines had us all laughing a lot. It was great to have an app that the whole family could enjoy from preschool and up. I would recommend this app for 4-10yr old, though fans of all ages will appreciate seeing all of Mo’s characters together in one app.
Pigeon Presents: Mo on the Go from Disney is available on iPhone, iPod and iPAD. It is $3.99 on App Store.
If you would like to check it out or purchase it, please use the App Store link provided below. The cost is the same to you, but iGameMom gets a small percentage. Thanks for your support! Note: The link works for all countries.
Don T Let The Pigeon Run This App Game Free
Today’s app is reviewed by JJ (Piwi mama), a proud wife and mama of two girls. The family travel with her hubby’s work so most of her time is spent teaching her kids. In her spare time, JJ blogs about their portable learning and reviews books. You can read about their travels at Learning and Growing the Piwi way