Holiday Gift Ideas -- Bring Your Child's Favorite Characters and Storybooks to Life with Incredebooks and Disney Imagicademy - Review and #Giveaway

Disclosure:  I was sent a sample from the vendor in order to write up an honest review.  All views shared are mine and mine alone.

Holiday gift-giving season has never been this much fun with Incredebooks from Mercury Connects!

You ready for this?  There are only 35 days until Christmas.  Nervous and stressed yet? I sure am, as I have only picked up a few things for the girls and still have a lot of shopping left to do. I am not even thinking about the wrapping part, or preparing for Christmas dinner.  But, like with every year, I somehow manage to get it all done...even if I am shopping on Christmas Eve and wrapping frantically through the night.  Are you the same? :-)

Well, at least when it comes to picking up fun storybooks for the girls this Christmas, I don't have to go crazy looking around, as the girls and I have fallen in love with the new Incredebooks from Mercury Connects.  Have you heard or seen these amazing connected storybooks yet?  They are a fun new way to bring traditional printed storybooks to life in 3D using your mobile devices.  Through the power of augmented reality technology the folks at Mercury Connects bring your child's favorite characters including Olaf and Mickey Mouse to life.

We recently had the opportunity to review Olaf Wants a Birthday (available at Target for  a SRP: $14.99).  This book arrived days before Bella's 4th birthday, so she thought it was sent just for her.  And, being a huge Olaf and Frozen fan, it was a great touch to her week-long birthday celebration. :-)

In addition to Olaf Wants a Birthday, you can also find Mickey and Donald’s Rhyme Time from Incredebooks and Disney Imagicademy exclusively at Target retail stores in the toy department and at Target.com.  Just in time for the holidays, these new books are sure to delight children of all ages, especially little ones as it offers a fun learning platform to help with rhyming and language development.  I homeschool both of my girls and continually look for fun ways to reinforce things we are learning like rhyming, which Savannah has struggled with in the past.  

Within minutes of downloading the app to our iPad the girls and my husband were ready to try of the Olaf Wants a Birthday storybook, which in and of itself is beautifully illustrated.  When we are not reading the storybook out loud or using it with our mobile device, I find the girls pulling the book from the shelf to flip through and admire the artwork, as they tell their own versions of the story based on what they see in the illustrations. :-)

I sure was a proud mama as I listened to my girls through the pages and choose the correct rhyming words. It showed that they were finally understanding rhyming and even rhythm.  My girls were all smiles as they saw the digitally enhanced Olaf come to life with the help of augmented reality technology.  It is really amazing what they can do nowadays with technology.  And, now with augmented reality technology, your children can enjoy their favorite storybooks and characters like never before. 

Once you pick up and share a storybook from Incredebooks and Disney Imagicademy, you will see why my family loves these books and why I think it will be a  hit this holiday season and going forward.  We will definitely be picking up the Mickey and Donald’s Rhyme Time book and will be on the look out for additional books releasing from  Incredebooks and Disney Imagicademy.  

Here is more about the these unique storybooks from Incredebooks and Disney Imagicademy, which you can find exclusively at Target stores and at Target.com...

Fuel your child’s love of learning with rhyme, rhythm and language!

"Featuring stunning illustrated artwork and rhyming verse, Olaf Wants a Birthday and Mickey and Donald’s Rhyme Time offer a traditional book experience, which can then be enhanced digitally with augmented reality technology.

Using their smartphone, children can scan specially marked pages to trigger an augmented reality experience – bringing the printed page to life in 3D and allowing them to interact with their favorite characters!

During play, children can:

· Take a photo with Olaf or Mickey

· Change viewpoints by zooming in and out — and rotating the 3D story scenes 360 degrees

· Explore four digital experiences reinforcing early language skills

· Tap objects to trigger animations and funny rhymes

· Engage in playful rhyming games and activities

In Olaf Wants a Birthday, the lovable Disney snowman discovers all the fun things that he could do if he celebrated birthdays like his friends Elsa and Anna. He imagines skating parties, games of tag, birthday flowers, walks with friends, songs and even a day at the beach. In the end, he decides he likes birthdays so much that he wants one every day.

And in Mickey and Donald’s Rhyme Time, which has arrived just in time for Mickey Mouse’s birthday on November 18, Mickey and his Clubhouse friends help Donald write a lovely poem for Daisy. Even the talented Toddles cannot provide the right rhyming words so Donald has to solve the problem himself through perseverance and hard work.

You’ll be amazed at the learning power of this new generation of “connected storytelling books.” As part of Disney Imagicademy’s innovative suite of products, Incredebooks: Disney Imagicademy Edition books help children explore reading foundation skills and concepts by:

● Recognizing rhymes and non-rhymes

● Listening to and matching rhyming word pairs

● Reading and matching rhyming word pairs

Here’s how it works!

Ø  Just download the included Apple or Android companion app through iTunes or Google Play.

Ø  Find the special symbols on the special book pages.

Ø  Activate the special pages in 3D with your mobile device!

The full augmented reality experience is INCLUDED AT NO EXTRA CHARGE with the purchase of the hardcover storybooks, available exclusively at Target.?

If you don’t have the book, you can sample the 3D experience by downloading a sample augmented reality page (PDF file) using the app; or an in-app purchase enables the downloading of two additional augmented reality pages.? In-app purchases are located behind a gated parents screen.

Here’s a great video which shows you how it works!

Now available exclusively at Target retail stores across the US and at Target.com (SRP: $14.99), the books, for children ages 3–8, are created by Mercury Connects and published by Mercury InPress, and developed with Disney Imagicademy, a division of DisneyLearning.

And for even more fun…check out other Incredebooks from Mercury Connects!

The Funny Fables book series is based on iconic children’s fables, including Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and The Three Little Pigs. Featuring delightful and original illustrations with reimagined story lines for today’s young readers, Mercury Connects has transformed these timeless classics into fully immersive experiences.?? (SRP: $11.99, available at Target.com in specially priced 2-Packs). ?

Plus, there’s a next-generation coloring and activity book for Mindy Candy’s Moshi Monsters. The Moshi Monsters: 3D coloring ?book series transforms the everyday coloring book into a fully customizable, augmented reality action game, bringing children’s creations to life in their world. (SRP: $9.99, available at target.com in specially priced 2-Packs)."

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**GIVEAWAY**

Thanks to the kind folks at Mercury Connects, one lucky Inspired by Savannah will win a copy of Olaf Wants a Birthday to share with that special child in your life.  To enter, please complete the entries on the Rafflecopter form below.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:  I was sent a sample from the vendor in order to write up an honest review.  All views shared are mine and mine alone.