Recent Articles
What is a digital book worth? Reflections on Pricing Book Apps for Kids in 2013
Over two years ago, as one of my very first blog posts I wrote about the prices in the book app market, using my first 100 reviews for analysis. Now that I have reviewed over 700 titles in this new industry, I’d like to share a few of the points I made in 2011, which [...]
iPads in Education: Five Tips for Teachers Introducing Devices to the Classroom
Last year I volunteered in my child’s Kindergarten class daily for an hour with our family’s three iPads. I learned a lot about selecting educational content (primarily early math & literacy apps) and how to set up an environment most conducive for learning. I was most impressed by the potential for mobile devices to improve [...]
Children’s Librarians in the Digital Age – Part I: A Call to Action
In March, I was honored to be invited to the Watsonville, California public library to do a presentation with Cen Campbell, a librarian in Mt. View and blogger at LittleeLit.com. Our audience was a small group of dedicated librarians who work in a variety of settings in the public library system in Northern California. It [...]
Resources for Researching and Evaluating Educational Kids Apps
I recently developed a series of in-person presentations, kind of like an “Educational Apps & Ebooks 101″ for groups of parents, educators, librarians or other helping professionals in my community and state. In the process, I have created a handout with my favorite research reports and online resources to guide app evaluation & the selection [...]
Literacy and The Digital Shift: How Educators, Parents & Librarians Can Bridge the Cultural Gap
The revolution is here. Over 500 years ago, when the Gutenberg Press was introduced, many people did not understand how the cultural shift would reverberate in every institution within society. We have greatly improved research that can quantify and qualify our projections for the future now, but this does not do anything to hedge against [...]
Why Public Libraries are the Only Thing That Matters (to me) in the Print vs Digital Debate
I began this post nine months ago and have struggled to feel like it is finished. I now realize it will never be finished … no more than a river will be done flowing. It is about information, knowledge, curiosity and ultimately our humanity. In many ways, the cultural landscape is being transformed before our [...]
Parents, Kids & The Digital Shift: Strategies for a Balanced Media Diet
This guest post is brought to you in collaboration with Lorraine Akemann of Moms With Apps. This is Part 1 of a 2 part post … the 2nd part will appear in the MomsWithApps.com blog in December of 2012. From Lorraine, “Carisa and I have both been blogging about family-friendly apps since 2009. We realized through our [...]
iPad Best of the Best – 50 Essential Children’s Book Apps (Part 4: Tweens)
Children’s book apps have been around now for over two years and we have seen a lot of wonderful titles at Digital-Storytime.com over this time. What follows is the forth and final post in a four-part series, listing the best 50 iPad books for kids, broken down by age. You can see our first list [...]
The Bedtime Story App – Our Top 25 Recommendations (Part 2)
This is a list of individual book apps, mostly from small publishers, representing our “best of the best” for bedtime reading in 2012. Some of these are lightly interactive, but done in a way that doesn’t lend itself to endless tapping (or over-stimulation). We did not include any of the apps that made our list last year, [...]
Marketing Kids Apps (Part III) – The logic, logistics & politics of pricing apps
This is the third and final post in my series about marketing kids apps. [See: Part I: Three Things No Amount of Code Can Fix & Part II: How Consumers Decide to Download] We end the series with some of the stickiest questions in the app world: What’s an app worth? What price point will encourage downloads? Should an [...]
Recommended iPad Book Apps for Older & Reluctant Readers Ages 8-12
Of all the requests for recommendations I get, the most common seems to be from parents & teachers looking for book apps for children in 4-6+ grades (ages 10-12+) who are struggling with basic reading skills. “What can you recommend for my students who are in 5th grade but read at a much lower level? [...]
Why the iPad has revolutionized bedtime reading for parents & kids …
There is no getting around it. The iPad has transformed the reading habits of some of the littlest readers. The lines between reading and ‘media’ are even blurred. I knew this to be a fact when my child began to choose iPad books over television & video games, even. But when it comes to reading [...]
The Changing Face of Children’s Books – New Challenges, New Opportunities
It is such an honor to write this post for Armchair BEA – An extension of the Book Expo America and the Book Blogger Convention in New York this May 2011. I’ll admit, a year ago I had not even heard of Armchair BEA. In fact, I had not heard of BEA itself. I was a [...]
Is Education Broken? The Problem with US Standardized Testing in Public Schools
Last night Jayne Clare from TeachersWithApps held their EdAppTalk on Facebook to discuss standardized testing in US schools for 2nd-11th graders, based on their recent post, “Isn’t it TIME to Stand Up Against Standardized Testing?” It made me realize it is also time for me share my concerns and why I would like to see [...]
How to Get a Response from a Website about your App Review
I considered titling this post “Today in my InBox” because in all my years working with children, I always loved the concept of catching people being good instead of just pointing out their mistakes. Huh? What’s that have to do with my email inbox? To explain, I offer up this collaborative post with Rob Wheat of [...]
What’s that #storyappchat? A chat for those who create storybook apps for kids …
Every Sunday night for nearly the past two years, my family will tell you I have that ‘twitter thing’ and possibly roll their eyes. But if you love children’s storybooks and the new apps that have been inspired by them, you might enjoy hearing more about a ‘twitter thing’ called #storyappchat … The #storyappchat [...]
Paid App Marketing: Seven Priceless Lessons – Guest Post by Amy Friedlander
This guest blog post is brought to you from Amy Friedlander, VP of Marketing & Strategy for Wasabi Productions. This team has created several book apps, including the Lazy Larry Lizard series that launched in April of 2010. Selling a paid storybook app is kind of like selling a new brand of peanut butter or this season’s new sweater. You’re introducing [...]
It’s daunting, but you can create your storybook app too! – Guest Post by Alex Souza
Alex Souza is the founder of Kwiksher, a photoshop plugin for publishing illustrated, interactive storybook apps. I met him when he was hosting #storyappchat on Twitter for us back in 2011 & again last summer and he’s a great resource, even for those not interested in Kwik specifically. Check out his blog, including articles like, [...]
Why I Put Writing and Illustrating Children’s Books on the Back Burner: For Now – Guest Post by Brooks Jones
Brooks Jones is the author/illustrator of the original storybook app, I Don’t Like Pink. She has also published a craft how-to book, Planet Pouch: Simple Juice Pouch Bags Anyone Can Make, now available on Amazon for the Kindle. In 2011, she founded a weekly chat on twitter for story book app creators, called #storyappchat. In May of 2011, I [...]
The 2012 CYBILS Literary Awards – Five iPad Book Apps to Make the Cut
For the second year in a row, I was honored to be chosen as a first round judge for Cybils, a literary award started over five years ago by book bloggers. According to the Cybils website, this award was begun to: Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators, let’s not forget them) whose [...]
App Schmapp, make sure you give ‘em a good story – Guest Post by Annie Fox, M. Ed.
This blog post is brought to you by Annie Fox, M. Ed. She has written many books for kids, teens and parents over the past 40 years. Her digital transition has been part of a life-long partnership with her husband, developer David B. Fox. Their most recent collaboration is Electric Eggplant, producer of Annie’s print-to-app series, Middle [...]
An a-MAZE-ing Transition: Roxie Munro Talks about Print, Digital & Lessons Learned
This guest blog post is brought to you by Roxie Munro, the author & illustrator of several exceptional apps, including Roxie’s a-MAZE-ing Vacation Adventures and Roxie’s Doors. She is also the author & illustrator of more than 35 popular print titles for children, with a career that brings a special wisdom, covering both traditional print & digital publishing opportunities. [...]
A Digital New Year’s Resolution: Wear the Web Like a Loose Garment
“Wear the world like a loose garment,” is a wise bit of advice, credited to St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). Essentially he taught that we should try to be in the world without becoming overly dependent on it for our sense of self. This is my 2013 New Year’s ‘thought to chew on’ … since I [...]
My Favorite Sites: A Resource List for Finding the BEST iPad Apps for Your Kids
Since I began my review site, Digital-Storytime, two years ago I have had the privilege to meet many wonderful people in the app industry and develop collaborative relationships with some of the site owners behind the best kids app sites on the web. With 2013 being called (for the 3rd year in a row, perhaps) [...]
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Lessons Learned: It’s Hard to Sell an App – Guest Post by Julie Landry Laviolette
This guest blog post is brought to you by Julie Landry Laviolette, developer of Brush of Truth, a book app for kids 8-12 in a “choose-your-adventure” format. A mom of two, Laviolette founded her company, Story Bayou, to get tweens reading through technology. She can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In. I remember when I first announced to [...]
Is it a small world after all? Creating Apps in a Global Village – Guest Post by Shoham Drori
This guest post was brought to you by Shoham Drori. She has travelled extensively in India and is the mother of two boys. Her love of cross-cultural storytelling led her to found PlaneTree Family Productions and create the app, The Magnificent Travelling Palace. You can also find her on Facebook. During the last decade, social and technological [...]
The Art of Hiring Help: Illustrators & Animators – Guest Post by Lauren Freeman
This guest post was brought to you by Lauren Freeman, writer/developer of Laloo the Red Panda , a book app created for iPad. This article is about the Pros and Cons of working with an independent contractor vs. an outsource studio when creating a new iPad book app. For those of you in the preliminary stages of building [...]
Tablet Device Comparison for Families – Now including Nexus 10 Review
This review is of the Nexus 10 tablet, the newest addition to our family for testing. We really liked the smaller version of this tablet, the Nexus 7, and consider it the best Android option (for those who prefer Google-Play), with the best overall experience. The Nexus 10 currently starts at $400, a price point that [...]
iBooks Author And The Power Of The Globe – Guest Post by Jon Smith
This guest post is brought to you from Jon Smith, a special education & technology resource teacher. Mr. Smith has also helped his students self-publish several free iBooks, including, It Was A Dark And Stormy Classroom and The Two Kids and Desert Town. I taught special education students in an urban elementary school. My students often struggled [...]
Storybook App Creation: 10 Lessons Learned – Guest Post by Amy Friedlander
This guest blog post is brought to you from Amy Friedlander, VP of Marketing & Strategy for Wasabi Productions. This team has created several book apps, including the Lazy Larry Lizard series that launched in April of 2010. It’s strange to feel like an ‘elder’ or ‘veteran’, fit to reflect on what’s changed in the tablet app [...]
The iPad Mini – It doesn’t suck! – Device Comparison Grid for Kids’ Tablets
I was skeptical as I purchased my 4th iPad, the new iPad mini on Friday when it arrived at my local Apple store. I was expecting lower performance or at least to be unimpressed by the smaller screen size. But in the end, this could be one of the best holiday gifts this season, especially [...]
How to Create and Market a Children’s Book App – Presentation Highlights
This past weekend I travelled to San Francisco to speak with a group of workshop participants attending Karen Robertson’s training on “How to Create & Market a Children’s Book App“. Karen is the author of several great resources on making and marketing book apps for kids, including an online course called “book app academy“. Karen [...]
How to Submit a Book App for the Cybils Literary Awards
Every year, Cybils, or the Children and Young Adult Blogger’s Literary Awards, are given out for the year’s best children’s and young adult titles. Nominations are open to the public from October 1st through the 15th, using a simple form. This period is over for 2012, but the nomination period for publishers is now open, running from [...]
Two Essential Features for Digital Picture Books (a note to developers from your readers)
Just this week, several Oceanhouse Media titles, from their popular Dr. Seuss collection, including Green Eggs and Ham, have added recordable narration and additional settings that include page guides for easier navigation. This is an exceptional step and not an easy programming effort on the part of a major developer of book apps. It is [...]
Technology, Teachers & Our Kids’ Future: Why Funding Training Matters More Than Buying Tablets
I have spent most of my professional life (over 20 years) working for, in support of and in collaboration with programs that functioned to support primary & secondary school-aged kids, parents & teachers. In this capacity, I have seen booms & busts in funding, priorities shifting from one collective program we thought would ‘save our [...]
