Dream library, IKEA version

As long as I can remember, I’ve had the dream of one day owning a house big enough to hold a room with a dedicated library of all my books, complete with one of those rolling ladders to allow me to reach the high shelves. This dream personal library has a velvet chaise lounge with a beautiful bronze floor lamp next to it, and a fireplace, bear rug, the whole luxurious nine yards.

I made a startling realization the other day: if we abandon the fantasy of the chaise lounge/floor lamp/fireplace, I’ve already got the dream library, since I have more than 600 books in my Amazon Kindle Cloud Drive and more than 200 iOS apps, half of them book apps.

Dream library, Kindle version

I write this post today because I’ve been hearing the following statement lately, from a variety of people:

“I like ebooks and all, but I prefer the feel of a real book in my hands.”

While I don’t really care if these folks hold on to their dead tree books as long as they like, I think they’ll eventually change their minds. Here’s why.

Ebooks Are Convenient

Between all my gadgets (Android phone, two iOS devices and a Kindle Touch) I have access to hundreds of books (many obtained free, or at discount prices) in my favorite genres. I send cookbooks, craft books and other how-to or multimedia books to the Kindle Reader on my iPad; mysteries, business books, chick lit and other text-based books I want to read soon to the Kindle Touch, and the rest (books I may want to read someday) to the Kindle Cloud Reader, which effectively stores them in the cloud for free. I use the Kindle Reader on my phone when I don’t have access to one of my other reading devices and I’m unexpectedly caught with an extra few minutes in my day. I like having my library accessible anytime, anywhere–I don’t have to be on the velvet chaise lounge after all.

Page turns are managed with a single touch to the right-hand side of the screen, and I can get to any place in the book easily, within a couple of touches.

Ebooks Enhance the Experience of Reading

I love the ability to touch a word I don’t know and get the definition instantly. I love that the Kindle system keeps my place no matter which device I’m using. I also love the way many of the book apps I have for my kids not only hold their interest but encourage literacy and retention through interactive features (one company that does this especially well is Oceanhouse Media with word highlighting and the ability to hear a word aloud when it’s pressed in their storybook apps).

Ebooks Are Lighter and Easier to Maneuver

I’ve been reading the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. Because I am a cheapskate, I decided to read the third book (A Clash of Swords) in paperback, since I found it at my local used bookstore and purchased it with store credit. This book, in mass market paperback form, is heavier and bulkier than my Kindle Touch and won’t stay open without my propping it with a heavy object, so it’s difficult to hold with just one hand. I like the fact that I can store all the ebook versions of the others in the series (and hundreds of other books) on a single device that weighs less than the small-format paperback.

Ebooks Are Less Wasteful

Lately when I hold a print book, especially a hardcover, I’m hit with the overwhelming feeling of wastefulness. There’s something pretty unpleasant about the fact that the book I hold in my hands is a real, tangible slice of what used to be a living thing, processed and assembled for the sole purpose of my entertainment or learning. I offset this as much as I can by taking physical books I don’t want anymore to my local used bookstore, then offering the ones they don’t want on PaperbackSwap.com, but the fact is: printed books use up resources (paper, ink, glue and more) that no longer need to be expended for the same entertainment or educational value.

Ebooks Can be Updated Much Faster, and at Less Cost

Non-fiction books in print form eventually become outdated. Information changes and evolves as humans gain more knowledge about a topic, or when materials or ways of doing things are improved. But let’s be honest: most non-fiction print books will be truly useful for only a fraction of their lives. After that, the next edition replaces it–at significant cost. Textbook publishers have profited from this with great success for many years–at the expense of both teachers and students.

It’s time for ebooks to become the preferred way to distribute educational materials and other non-fiction content, which can be updated quickly and redistributed almost instantly, to all users of the material, with no expending of the tangible resources needed to print a new edition.

However, Ebooks Aren’t Perfect

For me, the five reasons above are pretty compelling for the shift to digital. But there are some things about ebooks I don’t like as well. These shortcomings aren’t enough to send me back to paper, but they are worth mentioning:

• The Kindle ‘Farthest Page Read’ Feature Needs a Reset Button. The ability of Amazon’s Kindle devices to keep my place is great, but occasionally I accidentally make my way to a later page that doesn’t actually reflect where I am in the book. When this happens, keeping my place manually becomes a pain in the neck. I’d love to see a way to reset this, but I imagine it won’t happen, since the addition of this feature would make it much easier for spouses and other family members to share books on the same family of devices. But since I let my kids and spouse share my print books, I’d sort of like to share my ebooks with them too, in a hassle-free way. Come on, Amazon!
• Prices of Ebooks from the Big Publishers are Too Expensive. Books coming from the big 6 publishers are priced according to their artificial and rapidly-crumbling world of print scarcity and their hardback-to-trade-paperback-to-mass-market-paperback release schedule. This is archaic and needs to change. Why should the ebook version of a title ever cost more than the mass market paperback would? It all comes down to greed, and an over-reliance of the old way of doing things. Eventually these outdated practices will put many of these publishers and retailers (remember Borders?) out of business.
• Ebook Lending Needs to Be Improved. It’s nice that I can lend one of my Kindle books to someone else (if the publisher allows it), but I can only do it once. After that, the book can’t be lent again. I don’t mind the restrictions of one-person-at-a-time and my own inaccessibility during the lending period (since these are in force for my print books too) but let’s remove the artificial restriction of once only, and let me lend a book I’m finished with over and over if I choose.
• Ebook Devices Aren’t Durable or Affordable Enough. When iOS devices and other ebook readers are able to withstand normal wear and tear by school-aged children (i.e. being dropped on the floor) and are cheaper than $50, we will see a true revolution. Until then, they aren’t practical enough to replace most of the printed books in my house, which are now children’s books. Plus an entire segment of the population (the lower middle classes and below) have little to no access yet.

So, what I’m saying is: in spite of the drawbacks, ebooks have become just as ‘real’ to me as print books are. I love them both, but I’m not buying many print books anymore. And eventually (probably within the next five years or so) most of the rest of you will be saying the same thing.

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

Such is the case with Doodlecast, a new offering from Tickle Tap Apps. The idea behind this is simple indeed, but the app opens the door wide open to a world of kids’ creativity.

Doodlecast is nothing more than a tool which allows kids to capture the process of creating a drawing–in video form, with their own narration. Kids can choose from several ideas to get the creative juices flowing, or they can start with (my favorite) a blank canvas. There are several colors to draw with, and once a background/idea is selected, the video recording process automatically begins. Simply speak while drawing to record a voiceover for your video, if desired. Press ‘Done’ when finished…playback the video and press Save, and voila! Your video is ready to be shared on your device. Use the Photos app (included with every iOS device) to view, email, or upload to YouTube.

Watch the above video to see how my 6 year-old daughter used Doodlecast to create a short clip about playing in the park. Note: I found this in the camera roll on my iPad a few days after my daughter created it, which is a testament to how easy the app is to use. She did it all on her own with no help or prompting from me. Pretty neat, eh?

Here’s the official app trailer for Doodlecast. This is a fun toy that encourages free expression, and is a great deal in the iTunes App Store at $1.99.

(Full disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this app for review purposes.)

One of my favorite new app review sites (Best Kids Apps) has reviewed my storybook app ! They even put together a teaser video–wow! Here’s some of what was mentioned in the review:

“This is a wonderful book app that is loaded with lessons. The author, as well as the illustrator, Brooks Jones is a natural born teacher…A great gift for Christmas time and interacting with many friends and family members. This app is a great addition to your kid’s toolbox for life!”

Check out the entire review here.

To the CapriSun Customer Satisfaction Team:

I’ve been a fan of your product since I was a kid myself, and I now regularly buy CapriSun juice drinks for my children to enjoy. We drink at least one carton of your product each week, which adds up to a lot of juice.

In fact, I’m currently working on a craft book which shows people how to create their own bags and totes from used (and rinsed) juice pouches, especially the rectangular pouch you hold the patent on and use for CapriSun, Kool-Aid Jammers and others. I’ve not only been saving these pouches for over a year, but I’ve asked my kids to bring home the pouches that their friends drink at lunch which would otherwise go into the trash. So you can imagine: I’m building up quite a collection of your product pouches.

In the past when you’ve updated your pouch graphics, the changes haven’t bothered me. However, I’m noticing a subtle change lately that I’m not OK with: that of dropping the white ink from the regular CapriSun package. As you can see from the comparison photo above, the old style (with the flood of white ink behind the other colors) is much more visually appealing than the new style, which looks metallic and washed-out.

I understand that this is a cost-saving move; in fact, given the challenging economy, I appreciate you making this decision instead of providing a smaller package for the same price. However, I’m sure you could find other ways to cut printing costs–bring back the white and drop another spot color in a new design, move to four-color process (plus white!) instead of using spot colors, or drop one or more of the flavors that aren’t selling as well as the others (does anybody drink Orange, for instance?).

And one more thing: have you ever considered putting out a Variety Pack, with 10 (or 5) different flavors in a single carton? This would make for much more interesting bags for the low-volume users, and less-bored kids for the high-volume users. Just a thought.

Thank you for listening.

My Little Pony - Twilight Sparkle: Teacher for a Day by Ruckus Media

The app is centered around a My Little Pony story called Twilight Sparkle: Teacher for a Day which I suspect comes from the television show. The story is straightforward enough, and features Twilight Sparkle’s adventure after she is asked by Princess Celestia to share a history lesson with the Cheerilee students about Equestria.

The story features all the ponies your child knows from the show and the toy figures.

Word highlighting is included when the ‘Read to Me’ option is selected on the main screen. I think this is a must-have feature for a storybook app and I’m glad to see it here.

There are also little short videos that pop up between pages here and there that follow the story, as well as little bits of hot spot animation that are fun the first few run-throughs but don’t add a whole lot to the experience.

Sprinkled throughout the story are optional activities like mazes and spot-the-difference panels. Completing these correctly wins the reader words, which can be used to fill in the blanks in Twilight Sparkle’s diary. Best of all, there are several of the randomly-generated activities, so kids don’t get bored when going back to try to earn all the words.

Finishing the activities earns you words, which you use later on to complete several pages of Twilight Sparkle's diary.

The diary is my favorite feature of this app, because it could be used to help kids hone reading comprehension skills. The reader uses the words collected along the way to fill in the blanks in the diary. Tapping on a single word reads it to you, and once you’ve placed all the words in their proper spots you have the option to read the entire diary.

Use the words earned by doing the activities to complete Twilight Sparkle's diary.

Of course, you can place any word in any blank you wish–which provides a fun Mad Libs-style wacky reading, if you desire. I admit I felt a little rebellious doing this!

The main theme of the story (friendship and working together leads to great things) is hard to miss, but I liked the secondary theme even better (it’s OK if you’re not great at everything–ask a friend to help you out). And for my youngest daughter who loves all things girly, I’m happy anytime she chooses to interact with an app that aids literacy, even if pink princess pony parties are involved.

Bottom Line: Great production values and familiar characters add up to a solid, if unsurprising, app experience. If your kids like My Little Pony, they will love this app. Reasonably priced in the App Store at $3.99, and the app is universal (designed for both the iPhone and iPad).

(Full disclosure: I received  a free copy of this app for review purposes.)

Or perhaps you recall the side-splitting “This Land” cartoon that went viral during the 2004 presidential campaign. I still can’t watch this animated duel between George W. Bush and John Kerry without giggling uncontrollably.

As it turns out, an outfit called JibJab was behind both projects (and many others). The people on the JibJab team are masters of funny animation, especially photos of human heads superimposed on delightfully ridiculous bodies, doing silly things and dancing along to hilarious original music.

Their new initiative is an iPad app called JibJab Jr., which contains a series of childrens’ books and allows you to make your child the center of each story. This sounded like a fantastic idea to me–so I was eager to try it out.

The set up is easy enough. After downloading the app, just insert your kid’s face (choose a photo already on your iPad, or take a new one)–elegant and intuitive controls let you position the photo (rotate, resize, move) for best effect. Next enter said child’s name and gender, choose a matching skin tone, and you’re ready to explore the customized story–starring YOUR KID!

The free app includes one story–The Biggest Pizza Ever. I think all kids love pizza (and so do I) so this story hooked me from the very first page. Full of over-the-top superlatives, silly but artful animation and well-designed pages and typography, I adored this story. My kids and I all had to try it out with our own customization, and each reading of the story generated giggles all around. The Biggest Pizza Ever seems to have the same spirit as the Elf Yourself and other classic JibJab offerings–which is a Very Good Thing.

I also downloaded and tried out the Ocean Commotion story, which is beautiful and just as well-done as The Biggest Pizza Ever, but seems to lack the trademark JibJab silliness. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing though–it may be more appropriate for quiet times (like bedtime).

The JibJab team states that they don’t want to be part of the deluge of ‘hyper-clickable toys’–they are more interested in ‘enhancing the special wind-down time you spend with your child sharing stories at bedtime.’ Hear, hear! I’m glad there are no buttons to press, just cute, engaging, personalized stories.

However, the books contain no audio–no voiceover narration, no music and no sound effects. I think this is taking the move away from interactivity a bit too far. After all, the original songs and e-cards JibJab is known for would be nothing without audio. I believe the careful and thoughtful addition of sound effects and parent-recorded narration would make the JibJab Jr. books near-perfect.

Bottom line: you and your kids will love JibJab Jr. And (based on information from their recent customer newsletter) it looks as though they will be adding audio to their books soon. The app and the pizza book are free. The other books are a bit pricey at $7.99 each, but you can save some cash by signing up for the monthly book subscription (each month you get a new book for $3.99). Not bad! Get yours here.

(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of the Ocean Commotion book for review purposes.)

My girls and I were enjoying a new interactive storybook–one of our very favorites. Great production values, cute story, wonderful interactive features. So wonderful, in fact, that my two girls fought over who would get to press buttons on the screen on every page. For the first time ever, I had to stop the story in the middle because of the bickering. All of us went to bed a little annoyed.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that one solution would be to force the girls to alternate pages–take turns, if you will. That often works–unless there is more than one button on a page. Fairness makes sense to all concerned parties, until someone breaks the rules and chaos can then ensue.

The trouble is that I’m starting to think buttons don’t have a place at bedtime. Don’t get me wrong–I’m still crazy about the story app we fought over. I just think the place for it is during playtime, not bedtime. I think at bedtime, there’s still nothing wrong with a calm, thoughtful story, read by either a parent or other appropriate adult. Print books are great for this, but there can be a place for apps as well. I like the options to turn off both automatic page turns and the voiceover, so that we can go through the book ourselves if we choose.

Here is a list of my very favorite bedtime story apps, listed in no particular order. If you’re looking for a calmer, gentler bedtime, you might like these as much as I do!

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin

Developer: Oceanhouse Media

Writer: Joe Troiano

Illustrator: Susan Banta

This adorable story is made so much better by the first-rate voiceover, provided by Bobby “Boris” Pickett, the guy who co-wrote and sang on the 1962 hit novelty song “Monster Mash.” Cute art, nice message (sometimes being different is good) and appropriate music and sound effects all add up to a perfect bedtime story, especially near Halloween. A word on how powerful the app form can be: I just ordered the paperback through Scholastic because it’s only $1 this month, but just between you and me, I will miss Pickett’s voice every time I pick it up.

Bella Goes Bump in the Night

Developer: Patuto Press

Writers: Derek & Gina Roché

Illustrator: Jonathan Ashley

I just love the fanciful artwork in this story about a little girl facing the nighttime monsters in her imagination. Deliciously creepy without being outright scary, the app also features beautiful typography, word highlighting and an adventurous heroine. There is an in-app coloring book function, but it’s a separate option off the main menu and doesn’t pop up within (and therefore detract from) the story.

Maid Marian Muffins

Developer: Maid Marian Muffins LLC

Writers: Jamie & Jessica Vander Salm

Illustrator: Ana Benaroya

This story is about a lady and her dog who go off in search of the perfect blueberry muffin and finding none in the entire borough of Brooklyn, decide to make their own–and share! The girls and I especially like the funky illustrations and funny character expressions. I like the ‘big idea’ that if you can’t find something, creating it yourself can be a great solution. This app also provides parents the option to record their own voiceover, which I like.

Mr. Wolf and the Ginger Cupcakes

Developer: Blue Quoll

Writer/Illustrator: Lucia Masciullo

Mr. Wolf and the Ginger Cupcakes is a clever and charming retelling of the classic Little Red Riding Hood story. It includes all the elements of a perfect bedtime story app: beautiful illustrations, amusing and engaging story, and a crisp British-accented voiceover. I like the ability to adjust the volume of the lively background music (it is a bit loud at the default setting). You can choose from seven languages as well.

* * * * * * *

There are others, but these are four of my favorite standalone bedtime story apps (designed for the iPad) without all the bells and whistles. Did I miss any? Share your favorites too in the comments.

This is a picture book aimed at kids 4-8, and in much the same way as the Franklin turtle series, features animal characters interacting and muddling through common relationship issues. Raymond is the central character, a young alligator whose best friend at the beginning of the book is his teddy bear Snowball. He has an older sister Sheila, who is usually busy doing something with her friend and next-door neighbor Ilana. Ilana has a little brother of her own named Iggy, who is Raymond’s age. The story centers around the apprehension Raymond feels as he tries to make a new friend in Iggy.

It’s clear the developers behind Are You My Friend? spent a lot of time getting this iBook edition just right. With word highlighting, lively background music, different sound effects on each two-page spread and whimsical artwork, this is a rich multimedia experience that is rare in the iBookstore. I was particularly impressed with the voiceover artist and was surprised to find out all the voices were done by a single person!

The story itself could stand on its own as a print edition–and the multimedia extras don’t detract or annoy. The anti-bullying message is one that parents will appreciate, but the age-appropriate text, colorful art and endearing characters will keep kids interested too.

Bottom line: One of the first iBooks to feature background music, voiceover narration and words highlighted as the text is read, Are You My Friend? is a children’s book that provides a rich, app-like experience and a solid, engaging story as well.

Developer: Electric Eggplant

Author: Annie Fox

Illustrator: Eli Noyes

$4.99 in the iTunes iBookstore

(Full disclosure: I received a copy of this iBook for review purposes.)

The girls and I showing off our new shirts from Goodie World!

I’ve been wanting to show off these cool new t-shirts I won in a Twitter giveaway a while back, but vacation and a few other diversions kept getting in the way.

Do you guys know about Goodie World? This is a team of talented developers who are creating gorgeous learning apps for kids. Goodie Words, their first release, is a nifty little app that explains some common, but perhaps intangible or otherwise hard-to-explain, concepts/words for preschool kids.

I downloaded and tried out the free version of Goodie Words and loved it. First-class artwork and engaging interactivity make for a very endearing, useful and fun app, designed especially for the iPad.

According to their website, Goodie Shapes and Goodie Letters are in development right now–can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for us. Thanks, guys,  for the awesome shirts (and cool apps)!

Check out what I found at my local used bookstore: a like-new copy of one of Will Terry‘s books! You may remember that we were able to get Will Terry to guest-host the weekly #storyappchat back in June, and he did a bang-up job. I do love his books but they seem to be a little hard to find, so you can imagine how stoked I was to get my hands on this: and for less than a buck, too!

The girls and I will take this book out for a spin at bedtime. And Will: thanks for sharing your fantastic art with the world!