Children will love the Bigsby Interactive Story Buddy from Hallmark

As a gift the other year we gave one of the Hallmark interactive story characters to a friend’s child who had just turned 6.  The child loved the gift but I didn’t really get it.  Now that we have a child who is on the cusp of reading, I get it.  The Bigsby Interactive Story Buddy is another avenue for kids to enjoy reading and it really works.

Bigsby is a friendly Bigfoot type creature that lives in the woods.  He’s very fluffy and quite shy, but is quite goofy and friendly once you get to know him.  Sam and his family moved to the woods and soon enough they two become great friends.

Bigsby, the doll is activated by pushing his ear.  “Bigsby ready for story”, he’ll say in a friendly, goofy voice.  When you start reading one of the books from the Bigsby Interactive Story Buddy library he’ll respond to the reader immediately after the text in red is read.  Bigsby doesn’t re-read the text; he comments on it or adds sound effects in a conversational manner.  If you don’t read anything then Bigsby will turn off automatically in 5 minutes.

It’s very cute and our children love it.  The first time Bigsby talked back to us our oldest said, “how did he do that?”  We read the story three times that night.  After the kids realized that Bigsby’s ear was the key to turning him on and off we had to lay down some rules about how often we can touch him during story time.  Similar to Bigsby in the story, I told the kids that he was shy and if kept touching his ear he wouldn’t speak with us.

Hallmark has several different lines of their interactive story buddies, ranging from domestic animals to ones that girls or boys might like more.

The story in Bigsby reads at a nice, simple level and the illustrations have a retro 60’s feel about them.  I wish that Bigsby said a greater variety of things.  In Bigsby’s Best Friend, the book that comes with the doll, Bigsby says that he’s bashful or shy too often.

There are more books in this and other character series that cost around $15 a piece.  That’s not a bad price to pay for a new book but I wish that there was a bulk rate for purchasing more than one of the interactive story buddy books.

Bigsby interactive story buddy is a good way to spark curiosity and wonder in children that are interested in reading.    One of the good things about the book and the doll is that if you skip a page Bigsby still follows along.  His main thing is the red text on the pages, as long as you read that he’ll play along.

We received a Bigsby Interactive Story Buddy for review purposes.  All thoughts are our own.