Kids who love Richard Scarry’s classic Cars and Trucks and Things That Go might also enjoy a new early reading app from Montpelier game developer Chris Hancock of Learning Touch. “Words That Go with Richard Scarry’s Busytown Cars” uses the author’s goofy vehicles to familiarize kids ages 2 to 6 with simple words. When Lowly Worm pulls up to a stoplight in an apple car, for example, players drag letters from the bottom of the screen to spell the word “apple.” The game features five levels of difficulty and a narrator who calls out the letters and pronounces each completed word. It also includes appearances by other beloved characters, such as Mr. Frumble, Officer Flossie and the ever-present Goldbug.

“Words That Go with Richard Scarry’s Busytown Cars:” Available in the App Store, $1.99.


This article was originally published in Seven Days’ monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT.

This article appears in The Tech Issue October 2013 (Kids VT).

Seven Days’ deputy publisher and co-owner Cathy Resmer is a writer, editor and advocate for local journalism. She works in the paper’s Burlington office and lives vicariously through the reporters while raising money to pay them. Cathy started at Seven Days as a freelance writer in 2001 and still has the Rolodex to prove it. As the paper’s first online editor, she launched Seven Days email newsletters and started the paper’s first social media accounts. Cathy has overseen Kids VT, Vermont’s...