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Posts tagged 'interactive books'
Posts Tagged “interactive books”
Have you wished Benny the Cat a “good morning” yet?
Benny is a super cute and engaging ginger cat with a fluffy tail and pointy ears. You cannot help but love him as if he was your own pet. Children, as young as 1 year old, can play hide and seek with him, choose his favorite food, pet him, make his bed and much more.
Here’s a Q&A with the author and illustrator of “Benny the cat”, Tamar Hak:
How did Benny come about?
‘Benny the cat’ is the first children’s book that I have both written and illustrated, as opposed to having only dealt with the illustration side of things up to that point. It all started when I got a call from the people at Touchoo with a proposal to write and illustrate a children’s book intended for mobile devices using a touch screen interface. I was very excited with the challenge and could not wait to get started. My goal was to come up with a simple yet fun storyline that would appeal to children everywhere, while making as much use as possible of what this interactive interface has to offer.
What inspired your idea for the book?
One of my greatest loves in life is animals. I grew up in a small house crowded with pets, the memories and experience of that have had a very positive influence on me. To this day I cannot possibly imagine myself ever living without pets of my own. Coincidentally (yet not surprisingly) one of my favorite drawing subjects is animals. I therefore decided to take this opportunity to share my love for animals with kids and at the same time provide parents with a tool for introducing a certain pet to their child.
How did you come up with Benny’s character?
I chose a cat (a kitten) to be my book’s main character, first and foremost because it is simply my favorite pet. I started off by searching the web for kitten photos whilst thinking about what its character traits might be like. I knew that the book itself was going to be simple and straight forward one so I wanted to make up for that by making Benny’s character extra interesting and likeable for both children and their parents. Finally, I decided it would be a ginger cat (I have a soft spot for ginger cats as I in fact have one at home) small, chubby and fluffy with a whimsical spark in its eyes.
What technique did you use for the illustrations?
I love illustrating by hand and one of my favorite techniques is colored pencils. In this project I used a combination of graphite and colored pencils which no doubt made it harder in the transition to digital media as well as through the animation process but I felt that it was worth the effort considering the results.
Can you list all the pets you ever had?
Cats, dogs, mice, hamsters, all kinds of parrots and birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, frogs, turtles, silkworms, snails and porcupines. I think there may have been more…
What are some of your favorite children’s books?
I absolutely loved all the Moomin books by Tove Jansson, Erich Kastner, and Shel Silverstein.
About Tamar:
I grew up in the Tel aviv Area in Israel. I painted and sketched since childhood and later on studied at “Thelma Yellin” High school of arts and “Shenkar College of design”. Nowadays I work as an art director in the advertising industry and as a freelance illustrator and designer. In my spare time I like to sing, eat humus and go for long walks (not necessarily in that order).
Why I Wrote “The Sun Goes to Bed”
(or)
I’m a Wannabe: Being Part of the World of Children’s Book Apps
by Tami Lehman-Wilzig
I’m the kind of children’s author who looks to life for inspiration. No ghosts or goblins for me. No wizards or witches. Real-life behavior of parents, children and animals is what’s on my radar.
So when I read a newspaper article written by a father living in a rustic village, explaining how he took his four-year old daughter on a daily walk to watch the sunset, I had an Aha moment that I quickly translated into my first early childhood book. And not just a regular, full color, illustrated book. An App book, because another article I had read on a technology start-up called Touchoo, similarly piqued my interest, plus I couldn’t get over its slogan: “Books for Little Fingers”.
Both these articles happily coincided with my impending grand-motherhood. I fondly recalled reading to my sons way back when they were in between mischief. And bedtime? Prime time for me. Nothing was more cuddly and warm than having two tired heads leaning on me while I read out loud. But a grandmother reading to her grandson every night? That’s charting old/new territory. Then again, so are children’s book apps. So I embraced the challenge, mapping out a story about a tired sun at the end of a work-filled day.
I first determined that a lilting cadence was necessary to draw in the reader. I carefully crafted each word, each sentence. In the process I could feel my unborn grandson’s eyes tracking the illustrations with the voice-over text. I could sense his small, nimble fingers patting folding flower petals, swiping a curling cat’s tail and tapping ants walking through sandy trails. My excitement grew as I realized how this new, interactive world of reading would allow me to virtually be by his side nightly, teaching the ways of nature – his and that of the universe – while hearing my voice read to him out loud. Yes, the ability of parents and grandparents to record their voice is another benefit of children’s book apps.
Today, my book is in production and my 8-month old grandson is a work in progress. He’s an inquisitive little fellow who likes to poke, touch and feel, not to mention follow sounds and people’s voices. By the time he turns One he’ll certainly be using his tactile talents and I know he’s app to be all ears when his grandmother shows him how The Sun Goes to Bed on her iPad.
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Tami Lehman-Wilzig is an award-winning children’s book author. Her ninth and tenth books are scheduled to come out on September 1, 2011 – Green Bible Stories for Children and Nathan Blows Out the Hanukkah Candles. The Sun Goes to Bed is Tami’s first children’s book app.
Our storybook App Thumbelina is getting great reviews, which is a good feeling. An even better feeling is when parents write us to tell us about their children’s positive reactions to our App. But the coolest feeling ever is when a parent sends us a video showing us their child’s reaction to our App, like India’s mother did.
Check out this video and see what I mean for yourself.
This was Keren E keeping in Touch(oo)
Reading a book to your child is an important part of his or her development. It not only advances the child on a social and emotional level, but also has a huge influence on his or her reading habits, passion for books, and literacy. A Recent study has shown that the decline in reading is affecting America’s culture, economy, and civic life as well as children’s educational achievement. This could mean that there is a direct connection between reading books, and the academic success of our children and their subsequent success as an adult. Personally, I just love that intimate moment between my son and me at story time. There is always magic and creativity in the air which makes for a beautiful bonding experience.
In the last few years, we’ve seen a growth in the frequency of adults reading to children. However, with the digital media now playing such a significant role in our lives, preschoolers are increasingly bombarded from all sides by fast and gripping stimuli, most often very superficial and barren of real value. Research shows that these stimuli induce shorter attention spans in children. So we see some light in the state of reading, but the outlook is not yet bright.
Touchscreens has become a very convenient way for us to consume media. It is very clear by now that our little ones are also attracted to these devices. It is so easy for them to use… They intuitively know what to do, and you see babies as young as 9 months old mastering the control over a touchscreen interface. That’s truly incredible.
With interactive storybooks we are embarking on a new era of ‘active learning’, i.e. learning through doing and not through being taught. This is very exciting for us to be in this field, since it is exactly these kinds of book that have what it takes to attract today’s children to enjoy story time once again.
Reading an interactive story book is nothing short of revolutionary. After hundreds of years of reading still, printed books, the interactive storybook touches on many more developmental aspects and uses many more kinds of engagement than the printed storybook.
Does this mean that storybook apps and picture book apps on touchscreen can actually replace the printed book? I do not think so nor hope so. However, I do think they can be an amazing addition to the printed kind and together they have the potential to bridge the increasing gap between kids and reading (the numbers are quite scary).
Keren Essigman of the Touchoo team
If you’ve so far put off getting your little one our first StoryBook “1 Little Boy” because you prefer getting a feel of things before buying them (we feel the same way about this), you can now try out our LITE version FOR FREE!
Really, I find it hard to believe you haven’t gotten it yet, but if you haven’t – I have no doubt you’d want to own the full version after you get a feel of the app with this Lite one.
Enjoy!
This was KerenE keeping in Touch(oo)
Toddlers are at a stage where they are learning their language communication skills and experimenting with word meanings using visual and auditory senses. Reading to children while they are still in the 0-4 age range is critical in their overall development. Today there are many tools for toddlers to use such as interactive books or even computer programs with interactive stories.
Sitting down and having a toddler watch a parent as he/she reads to them is a classic approach. Bringing a story to life using hand gestures, voice, and facial expressions to spark the imagination, encourages creativity in children. This does not mean one has to completely dismiss the use of the interactive books available today. In fact, these tools with interactive stories can actually be helpful in giving the child a complete visual sense of the characters in them.
Toddlers have a very short attention span, and it takes great skill to keep them rooted to one spot for very long. For those new parents who think they have failed each time “junior’ disappears from view during storytelling, don’t fret about it. It’s a natural trait in children of this age group, which is why interactive books and interactive stories can be great in terms of keeping their attention for at least 30 minutes at a time before they move on to explore other attractive endeavors.
The bits and pieces of time that can be spent in exposing toddlers to language and reading material greatly improve the social and educational skills of the child. 1 By using interactive books or tools with interactive stories, the toddler improves his/her vocabulary and develops language comprehension long before he/she can even read a single word or sentence.
Reading words while pointing them out to the toddlers helps them to connect the sounds to words. Some interactive books actually have voice recordings that accompany them so that they can move step by step through the book along with the sounds they hear. Interactive stories can vary from voice taped whole stories, to simply pop-up pictures with large words along the bottom to help them with the visual connections.
The visual connection between sounds and words incorporates the identification of letters of the alphabet as well as number recognition. There are many interactive books that contain a complete set of interactive stories, building blocks with letters and numbers, or even push-button type devices that can keep many a toddler busy for long periods of time. Parents who wish to use these tools should take time to sit with the children and “play” with these devices to familiarize the toddler with association of words and numbers.
Another way to read to toddlers is to use the simpler interactive books that are packaged with little games. These games provide for more than 30 minutes of fun for both adult and toddler alike and can actually be an alternative to the more expensive computer programs that contain interactive stories.
The bonding time between parent and child is also an important aspect when a parent takes time to read to his/her child. 2 Toddlers are greedy for attention and need constant supervision. Reading to toddlers using interactive stories, no matter how short, is the most unforgettable experience because it was Dad or Mom who shared the moment. The story itself is long forgotten by the time they move on to the next toy, but the experience stays with them. As they progress, they will develop the habit of picking out interactive books on their own to bring forward to their parents to read to them.
Toddlers also like to have adventure in their lives, and when a parent reads from interactive books where the characters are interesting, they can actually pretend to be one of these characters. They can dress a toddler up like a pirate from one of the interactive stories they read together, and find hidden treasures in the kitchen cookie jar. This makes the whole experience all the more unforgettable, and the child’s creative nature is enhanced as well.
In an age where internet chat has become synonymous to the concept of “interactive” it is easy to overlook the simplicity of reading to toddlers the old fashioned way. With the availability of interactive books and tools that provide hundreds of interactive stories and games in one complete box, bonding time with the little ones can be forgotten. There is no replacement for the moments spent reading and learning with one’s child. The experience is more valuable than all the expensive gadgets money can buy.
