The Adventures of Alex: Electricity is a new iPad app available in English and Spanish. It’s an educational ebook with a funny twist at the end.

Alex is a curious little boy who wonders where power comes from. Learn what types of devices around your house require electricity by tapping each object on the pages. Then, go with Alex as he follows the power lines to find out where they begin.

Alex travels for miles with his dog to investigate the source of the electricity. Get ready for a big surprise at the end of the story. Although Alex finally finds the power plant, he discovers that what’s creating the power is rather unexpected:

I like that this story integrates the truly educational with something slightly humorous. It makes it more fun for kids who might not be as curious as little Alex about la electricidad and could spark a funny conversation at story time.

Find The Adventures of Alex: Electricity in iTunes

Available for iPad

Recommended for ages 4-9

Price: $4.99

Visit the Adventures of Alex website for more info.

GoComics features the classics, such as Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, and Doonesbury, but also has a wide array of newer comics, like Big Nate (Nate el Grande) that younger readers will love. Some of the strips are illustration-based, and others are more densely worded. I love that some of the Spanish versions present a high-level reading challenge for kids while still being fun.

The app is updated daily, is quick to load, and offers hours of digital entertainment without all the noise and distraction that come with many of our kids’ favorite apps. Use the free version, or pay $0.99/month to get an ad-free app experience, a daily comics email, and access to content and discounts on the GoComics website.

Find GoComics in iTunes and Google Play

Available for iPad, iPhone, and Android

Recommended for ages 10 and up

Price: FREE (basic account); Pro Membership available for $0.99/month

Check out more about GoComics here.

Rosetta Stone®, an international language education leader, has introduced a new kids division! With the launch of the Lingo Letter Sounds app, the groundbreaking company brings its skills into the world of early childhood language acquisition. We are excited to share this development with you just as much as the app, since the backing of popular linguistic educators brings even greater legitimacy to the goal of our bilingual families.

Lingo Letter Sounds combines all the basics of a fun app – adorable characters, beautiful graphics, and cute games – with effective reading and speaking practice. Kids can play with letter sounds in bubbles to improve English reading skills or use the Spanish Speak & Learn game to see if their pronunciation of common words is good enough to make the characters move and dance.

My favorite feature of this app is the sheer amount of content. Though there are just two game modes (and one toy shelf for viewing the toys you’ve earned), there are enough words to provide two hours of playing time! This is unique in the realm of free kids’ apps. Also, check out your child’s progress in the Parent Corner.

The opportunity to practice spoken Spanish with this app is resonant of Rosetta Stone’s most commonly used technology-based methods for picking up language skills. Instead of just spelling or reading words, kids speak them into the device and get immediate feedback. This is much more fun than having a parent approve of and correct their pronunciation!

Download this first release from the renowned developer and let them know that we want more like it in the future!

Find Rosetta Stone® Kids Lingo Letter Sounds in iTunes

Available for iPad and iPhone

Recommended for ages 3-6

Price: FREE

La aventura de Wubbzy y los dinosaurios is a cute story app for kids who already love Nick Jr.’s Wow! Wow! Wubbzy show. The show’s characters encounter various interesting species of dinosaurs on their adventure, including a “Locosaurio.”

Although they are a bit afraid at first, they end up baking and sharing cupcakes with the scary creatures. Each page is interactive, with the dinosaurs and Wubbzy’s friends each having something funny to say when you touch them.

There are a few games spaced throughout the story, such as this simple shape matching one:

At the end of the story, a Parent’s Corner will give you some simple suggestions for discussing what happened with your child. This app is a great way to disguise early reading skills practice in the form of play.

The app can be played in English or Spanish, and can be read automatically or left for you to read to your child.

Find La aventura de Wubbzy y los dinosaurios in iTunes and Google Play

Available for iPad, iPhone, and Android

Recommended for preschoolers

Price $1.99

Check out more apps from Cupcake Digital on their website, Facebook, and Twitter.

There are 13 different location-based categories to explore, including “En El Parque,” “La Ciudad,” and “La Cocina.” Each category includes a game and a thorough list of activities, broken down by age, that parents can do with kids in each location. I got some great ideas from this app, including how to make up fun rhyming games that are age-appropriate for my son.

Parent notes are included with each game, explaining exactly which literacy and math skills are present in that particular game.

If you’ve covered all the games or you want to let your kids enjoy a cute, relaxing activity, there is a sticker section, where kids can move the characters, animals, and objects around to create their own scenes.

As with all PBS creations, this one is wonderful. It’s a truly unique concept and the fact that it’s in both English and Spanish makes the PBS Parents app the perfect companion to any SpanglishBaby reader’s phone or tablet.

Find PBS Parents Play & Learn/ Play & Learn HD in iTunes and the Amazon Appstore

Available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Kindle Tablet, and Android Phone

Recommended for parents of children ages 0-5

Price: FREE

Check out more from PBS Parents on their website, Facebook, and Twitter.

We review a lot of family-friendly apps that kids can discover on their own, but I’d like to share a useful one that is intended for therapists, teachers, and parents who want to help students of all ages with Spanish pronunciation. Spanish Artik from Smarty Ears is a thorough app whose structure is based on the science of phonemes, a linguistic term referring to the smallest units (sounds) of a language.

This app allows you to add multiple students and have them participate one at a time or alternate turns. The instructor or parent can select the particular phonemes (for example the two “r” sounds, r-trill and r-flap) for each student and the placement of those sounds within the word. The app then generates a list of words that meet the criteria. Once you begin practicing, each word shows up with a picture, and you can click to hear it pronounced and even record the student’s voice. Indicate whether the student pronounced the word correctly, and the app will keep track of the results, which can be emailed or printed.

With over 450 words and customizable settings including rotating images (for group use), this app is a long-term investment in keeping Spanish skills fresh. It would be an excellent refresher for a nonnative speaker like myself and a great way to record a child’s speech progress, but can also be used in a formal classroom setting.

If you know anything about phonemes or are interested in finding out how breaking down words can help with fluency, visit the Smarty Ears list of resources about language learning and technology.

Find Spanish Artik in iTunes

Available for iPhone and iPad

Recommendedfor speech therapists and parents

Price $19.99

For other Spanish apps from Smarty Ears, check out this page. Also find Smarty Ears on Facebook and Twitter.

 Little Pim, the cute panda who teaches foreign languages, is one of our favorite characters for Spanish-language education. We have reviewed several Little Pim resources in the past, including the Word Bag app.

This PBS Kids iPad app, Little Pim Spanish, follows with the award-winning quality of other PBS Kids products. It is a simple, effective way for preschoolers to learn new vocabulary – 60 words and phrases, in fact. Aimed at English-dominant children who are learning Spanish, Little Pim Spanish is narrated by the title character in English, with just the new vocab words being presented in Spanish. In this way, it also supports code-switching skills for those who may already be comfortable in Spanish.

Rather than just being a touch-responsive app with pages and pages of icons, this is an interactive game that is easy for kids to follow on their own. There are three categories of words with three levels each, progressing from nouns to verbs, then short phrases. Little Pim asks you to repeat the new word aloud, then reinforces it by having you find the item on the table and in a bubble.

If you love other Little Pim products or just want a fresh, engaging game for your 3-5 year old, this app is a great choice!

Find Little Pim Spanish in iTunes

Available for iPad

Recommended for preschoolers

Price: $2.99

Check out Little Pim’s other products and additional apps from PBS Kids as well as our list of favorite Spanish-language resources and online games from PBS Kids.

Since we’ve been sharing so many kid-centered apps with you lately, I thought it was time to find one that’s more versatile – for intermediate Spanish learners of all ages. Play & Learn Spanish HD from Selectsoft Publishing is an iPad app that packs a serious learning punch.

Use different scenes, such as the classroom or city streets, or choose categories, like numbers and body anatomy, to see and hear the corresponding common Spanish vocabulary. Each time you tap an item in “Learn Mode,” the word pops up on the bottom of the screen in both Spanish and English. In “Game Mode,” you will hear and see the word in Spanish and have to tap the correct item to win points in each section. Add multiple profiles to allow the whole family to take the quizzes individually and compete!

Kids can use this app to quiz themselves or simply explore the graphics, but teenagers and adults that are learning or refreshing their Spanish will benefit most from Play & Learn Spanish HD. Recommend this one to your friends who are desperate to learn Spanish or will soon be traveling to a Latin American country.

Find Play & Learn Spanish HD in iTunes

Available for iPad

Recommended for ages 4 and up

Price: $3.99

Check out Selectsoft’s website for more.

Who doesn’t love Pocoyó?…..

That’s right: that would be impossible. The cutest little guy in a blue hat has a new interactive storybook to share with you and your kids. Las Mil Puertas is an adorable app that makes a Pocoyó episode come alive. All of our favorite characters – Elly, Pajarito, and the hilarious Pato – show up in this story about the mysterious doors that always have something different behind them. Pato jumps into one of the doors and disappears, and Pocoyó has to find him.

Change the language to English or Spanish, and then choose to put the book on AutoPlay, have it read to you while you control page turns, or read it yourself. Of course, there is an animated surprise on every page for your niños who like to touch every part of the screen.

This is a great app because the graphics, music, and voices match up with the clean look of the Pocoyó show that we’re used to. I will anxiously anticipate more apps like this in the future, especially if they involve Pocoyó’s cute little speaking voice in Spanish and Pato’s eyes popping out of his head!

Find Pocoyó: Las Mil Puertas in iTunes

Available for iPad and iPhone

Recommended for ages 4 and up

Price: $1.99

Check out more Pocoyó apps and activities on the Zinkia Entertainment website

What’s better than a bilingual app? A bilingual app that relays a great moral! 2 Tigers, the latest storybook app from 33 Loretta Kids’ Books, is a fantastic way to introduce the topic of sibling rivalry. In the story, the younger of the two tigers, Delilah, is jealous of her big sister, Sophie. So, she tries to come up with something she can do that her sister can’t. Just like human siblings, the tigers fight and get in trouble. It would be a great one for an older sibling to read to a younger sibling, or for the whole family to talk about together.

Choose to have the story read aloud in English or Spanish, or just show the words so you can read it to your kids. Each page has adorable animations and sound effects, some of which are laugh-out-loud funny. Not to mention, muy lindos!

2 Tigers is an awesome addition to any iPad or iPhone app collection!

Find 2 Tigers in iTunes

Available for iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone

Recommended for ages 4 and up

Price: FREE

Check out the Vimeo book trailer for 2 Tigers