#EPIC BOOKS APP OFFLINE#

And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a children’s edition of Aesop’s Fables without illustrations before now-Epic suggests it for ages 3 to 5, but it’s just 179 pages of text, not a single drawing or picture. The font is about what you’d expect from a Kindle book for adults, and with just black justified text on stark white pages, the presentation is so boring that the story loses a little magic. For example, the classic Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling has an age recommendation of 6 to 8, but it’s entirely without pictures. Some of the books you’ll remember from your own childhood are sadly unadorned. No pictures in Aesop’s Fables? Say it ain’t so! There’s no search function, since chances are everyone would search for Harry Potter, which Epic doesn’t have (yet?). You can isolate age groups, and scroll through Netflix-like categories such as Mysteries, Sports, Nonfiction, Fantasy, Picture Books, and so on. While the selection is large and mostly decent, it’s set up for general browsing more than finding something specific. If you tap the top of the book, it goes back out to the control page, where you can drop in a bookmark if you aren’t going to finish the book all at once. All you can do when reading a book in full-screen mode is zoom in and out with a finger-pinch. This is a reading app for reading-the books aren’t animated, and they don’t read the story to you. The collection is curated by Epic’s experts in children’s literature, so the selection is pretty quality, although the first book my own son selected is nothing but a picture book of various donut varieties.

#EPIC BOOKS APP OFFLINE#

That also means you need a network connection, but you can save books for offline reading, so they’re always available on the go. The books stream, so they load instantly with no waiting for a download. Parents can see how much their kids are reading, which books they’re looking at, and all the badges they’ve earned. Besides earning badges, reading books unlocks extra options for customizing your profile: extra avatars, patterns, and themes. Of course, kids earn lots of badges by simply reading books, but also by customizing their profiles and using the app’s other features, like rating a book or adding it to their favorites list. The badges are adorable, a great way of gamifying reading for the kids. Drilling down into a child’s profile, the parent can also see exactly which books the kid has read, how much time they spent with each one, and badges they’ve earned.

Epic books app