Disney Story Central is a website and a free app that connects children to all their beloved Disney characters and stories. After creating an account, parents receive four tokens that they can use to access four free digital books. The 100+ books are not interactive but they do come with two great features: Read-to-Me and Auto Play. These features are excellent for busy parents, non-readers and children still learning how to read. The reader of the Read-to-Me feature was well paced, and each word was highlighted as it was read allowing the child to recognize words in context.

As a mother of four kids I loved that each child could have their own bookshelf. The personalized approach was well received by my kids. The app was easy to navigate, bright and colorful, and the ability to search by character was helpful as each of my kids have their favorites. They have multiple books for each character covering a wide variety of topics so their is plenty from which to choose. My kids, especially the oldest, were motivated by the tokens, badges and trophies to keep reading. The fact that the kids got to read on mom's iPad was also considered a treat. Anything digital and the kids get excited. The subscription model is a great value for us.

I appreciated that the books are clearly labeled with reading levels. The blue-bordered books are read-alouds for non-readers and the green-bordered books are designed for early readers. I also really liked that each book has a preview option that allows kids to gauge their interest by accessing four to five pages before purchase.