# The Surprise (Home) — user reviews > 39 indexed App Store user reviews of The Surprise (Home) by Hamaguchi Learning & Development, LLC, rated 4.70/5 from 27 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-surprise-home/id527223436/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-surprise-home/id527223436.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 23 · 4★ 0 · 3★ 4 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 0 ## Newest reviews (17 of 39) ### 5/5 — Very Versatile *2012-08-03, version 1.0* Love this app! Very colorful and has so many possibilities for use. Users can develop their own story completely on their own or with the many assists that are available. Questions and key words are available to help with ideas and plot lines. Very colorful and great animation. The ability to record and story and share it is great for users to hear themselves, which can increase both speech and reading abilities. Since the stories can be simple or complex, a great app for a variety of age and developmental abilities! Great job! ### 5/5 — Imaginative! *2012-07-31, version 1.0* Great imagination booster! My son really enjoyed putting his words to this story, and came up with several surprising variations (the gassy dog incited quite a few belly laughs as well)! I love the challenge words - a great way to encourage creative thinking, along with exploring/improving vocabulary. Excellent app - keep 'em coming! ### 5/5 — make up your own story *2012-07-30, version 1.0* this is a real good app you can make your own story and recordin your own words great for little minds to have the story the way they think it is good for all ages ### 5/5 — A great app for all ages *2012-07-30, version 1.0* As a parent of 2 children with different levels of autism, one app is usually good for 1 child, but sometimes not the other. This is not the case with this one. This app can be used for children of all ages. It helps a child to learn how to tell a story, by not just describing what they see. It has an easy interface and it is easy for children to follow. The child has to use their voice and they get to record and hear their own voice. A definite must have app for parents of special need kids and special education teachers. Donna M. Scutaro-dscutaro ### 5/5 — What a great app - fun for all ages! *2012-07-29, version 1.0* As a mom and an educator I love finding apps that are both educational and fun. All three of my kids loved playing this app and took turns narrating and writing the different chapters. Now they love showing off their creative writing storytelling to the rest of the family! Keep up the great work Hamaguchi Apps! ### 5/5 — Endless Possibilities *2012-07-29, version 1.0* Both of my kids have and are enjoying creating their own storytelling (with lots of giggles)! Using the questions helped with my SN son who has a hard time engaging in conversation when being asked questions (unless something he enjoys) - this made it fun for him so he was engaged and learning! Highly recommend :-) @CharlyJames2 ### 5/5 — Great app! *2012-07-29, version 1.0* This app is wonderful for helping children to hear how they tell a story. This aids them in their pronounciation and helps some children to slow their speech down to an appropriate speed to allow others to understand them. Being able to record their own narration also allows children to tap into their imaginations. Each time they tell the story they can change it. We found it easy to navigate and the graphics were bright and vibrant. Hamaguchi has a winner with this app. A4cwsn provided this app for me to check out and I found it to be a winner that I highly recommend! ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2012-07-29, version 1.0* I am so glad to have found this app! My son is going to benefit greatly. He lacks imagination and story telling abilities. This app has him excited to try. This app was well thought out and I will be sure to pass the word on to other people about it! I love that he can record his voice and although right now his story lacks imagination and creativity, I know that with this app he will greatly improve!! ### 5/5 — Universal Design, Encourages Writing Skills *2012-07-28, version 1.0* Hamaguchi Apps has another winner on their hands! I love that children can add their own text and narration to the animated video clips of each scene in the story. They can also go back and edit their entries later. A child who is not yet reading can simply play the videos to watch, if they are speaking or comprehend speech, narration can be added to work on communication and sequencing skills. Children who are emerging writers can type the text into each page AND/OR narrate the scene. This allows for children at various levels of ability in the same age group class to work on these skills together, but at their own level. Speech therapists will love this app for the sequencing, making inferences from the pictures, labeling, and more. Students will be engaged by hearing their own voices and can make corrections in their articulation to increase clarity. ### 5/5 — So many possibilities! *2012-07-28, version 1.0* This app is wonderful for teaching storytelling and writing skills to any age! It would also work well for speech practice. I love how you can use the speech to text option iPad2 or iPad3 to allow the child to fill in the written part of the story without having to type. Can't wait to see what is next from Hamaguchi! ### 5/5 — Amazing App *2012-07-28, version 1.0* Just got this app and my daughter loves it. She says it is her favorite. It encourages comprehension and storytelling while being fun and hearing your own voice is just great! I love how it allows her to use her imagination. How fun! Thanks for a great app! ### 5/5 — You're the storyteller: The Surprise *2012-07-28, version 1.0* My 9.5yr old asperger son needed help with LA,communication and storytelling. This was a great help! He loves the mic option! ### 5/5 — Easy, Simple, Creative! *2012-07-28, version 1.0* This app is great for practicing storytelling with children. As an educator I love the features it has. It has 'Challenge Words' built into it, but if you were using it in a classroom you could have the students use spelling or vocabulary words. One of my favorite things is that it is staggered into chapters, so for students who have a hard time focusing they could do a chapter or two each day until they are done! There are so many ways you could use this, the writing area to help with typing and writing skills and the oral piece to help with fluency and word choice. Great app! ### 5/5 — Fun AND Educational! *2012-07-28, version 1.0* My son loved this app- it had great pictures that he could follow along with and it provided a lot of giggles too. My son has a lot of trouble with dialect and this app really helped him along with articulation. I can't believe that app is so inexpensive, a great buy at a low price, well worth the cost! We can also work on spelling, he already recognized a few of the words! ### 5/5 — Very Creative *2012-07-27, version 1.0* I'm the Mom of a child on the Autisim Spectrum and this app is right up his alley. It is very creative, colorful and funny! I love that we can record my voice as he responds to it in a very postive way. Great that we can make the story different each time we read the book. Fantastic graphics as well. Easy to navigate, and the dog was the icing on the cake. Another fantastic app from Hamaguchi. I'd highly recommend. ### 5/5 — What a great homeschool tool! *2012-07-27, version 1.0* I have started working on creative writing with my kids this year and that can be a challenging topic for little ones on the autism spectrum. This app is the perfect tool to get us going! My kids can make up their own story based on what they see and even record it to hear it play back to them. The graphics are bold and hold their attention well. Please come out with more story telling apps! ### 5/5 — Fun creative outlet! *2012-07-27, version 1.0* This is such a great app for varying age levels. My son just wanted to talk about the "movie", and then loved to hear himself on the playback! My son needs my help in recording, and then I write his words, but for older children who are fully independent this will suit them too! The story is so cute, but the thing that I like the best about the app is that no story is the same, and building a story from a video is a great use of creativity and helps foster the love of reading at an early age! Technically the user interface is very friendly to use! I am ALL about having an app that is easy to navigate for both myself and my child. The picture quality is better than many other book apps that I've used! Two thumbs up from both mommy and kiddos! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 4/5 — very cute app and awesome idea *2012-07-31, version 1.0* This is super cute and unlike any other app i have seen around. I love the idea that the kids can narate their own storybook app. Love this and can not wait to see other apps from this developer!! ### 4/5 — Kids love it! *2012-07-29, version 1.0* My kids love to record their own voice and listen as they tell the story. I love to hear the crazy things they come up with! Highly recommend! ### 4/5 — Awesome *2012-07-28, version 1.0* Dictation is something I greatly encourage in my little, and this app delivers a great way to practice this skill. It also encourages reading and spelling skills, I'm definitely a fan. ### 4/5 — FUN app! *2012-07-26, version 1.0* A storytelling app is an awesome tool to engage students in the various areas of receptive and expressive language as well as Fluency and Articulation skills. Challenge words and Comprehension Questions are just what an SLP wants in an app. The scenes are beautifully designed and inviting. I especially liked the sound effects. I did find that there needs to be a setting to allow for more time to record. In speech therapy and working with children with expressive language delays, more time should be allowed for recording their story. Overall it is an awesome app.I cannot wait to start using the app in therapy where the students will have FUN being the STORYTELLER! ### 4/5 — A clever, creative app *2012-07-25, version 1.0* Helps practice skills in several areas: storytelling, spelling, diction, etc ### 5/5 — Love it! *2013-10-24, version 1.1* What a wonderful app! It's so versatile, and can really be modified for so many age groups and so many goal areas! PLEASE do more wordless stories! ### 5/5 — Great SLP App *2013-07-16, version 1.1* Awesome app for story generation when you don't have enough time for children to come up with their own story! Includes all parts of story grammar and can be recorded and sent to parents. Kids loved it too. ### 5/5 — Awesome *2013-05-03, version 1.1* I love this app. It is really thought out and there is so much to this app. You get to work on creating your own story based on what you see and think is happening. You get three questions per chapter, but you can also ask your own questions. I also love the info page that gives you tips and suggestions for using the app. The home version works great for one user, but I work with several kids so I really like the pro version because you can let your kid listen to their story and/or other saved stories so they can see how others interpreted the story. Great job Hamaguchi! ### 5/5 — Awesome *2013-05-03, version 1.1* This is a terrific app that allows you to narrate a story and answer questions about what you think is happening. I love this app and my kids love it as well! Great job on the info page as well! I look forward to more stories! ### 5/5 — Great!!! *2012-11-07, version 1.0* I love how this is laid out, so many opportunities and ways to develop speech and language skills for my students. I can't wait to see more! ## Most praised reviews (5 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Love this app! *2012-11-02, version 1.0* This is an amazing app geared at allowing the use of creativity and imagination. As a SPED teacher, I will certainly utilize this app in a variety of settings with a variety of students. Thank you Hamaguchi for yet ANOTHER amazing app! Both my students and chiildren LOVE this app! ### 5/5 — Wow! What a wonderful writing tool! *2012-09-23, version 1.0* I am looking at this app through the eye's of a teacher. This app is awesome for the beginning writer. It allows them to watch the video and then they can either write or record a story to go with the video. Many times students have trouble writing because they can not think of anything to write about or they want to just write a sentence or two. This app makes it fun for them to create and then write a complete story. It also works on using and recognizing certain words. The students will love recording their stories and listening to the playback. I believe that is app is worth 5 stars! The pro version would be great for special education classroom as well as your lower grade levels! I can't wait to start using this with my kindergarten kids! It leads them into the writing process without them knowing it :) ### 5/5 — The Suprise Storytelling App *2012-09-06, version 1.0* I think this is a good app to use with the students that I work with. This allows them to participate in many areas. As an Occupational Therapist, I can work on writing skills as well as working on problem solving skills. My Speech Therapy friends will love it as well! This is a fun app. ### 5/5 — You're the Storyteller *2012-09-05, version 1.0* By:Papadiz Great concept for building language skills. I can see this app being used in a wide group of age ranges, covering a limitless number of stories. Show us more! ### 5/5 — Excellent *2012-08-17, version 1.0* I provide speech and language therapy to pre-K to 3rd graders. This is just what so many of my kids need. More titles please! Different styles of illustration would be good for future editions as well as a range of characters featured. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*