148 Apps on Facebook 148 Apps on Twitter

Tag: Children's book »

Award Winning Children's Book Bedtime for Sarah Sullivan is Bound for the App Store

Posted by Rob Rich on August 28th, 2014
iPad App - Designed for iPad

Bedtime for Sarah Sullivan is a children’s storybook that emphasizes the importance of going to bed, dreams, and those magical moments right before being tucked in.

Now Kelly Paniagua, author of the award-winning children's book, is planning to bring an interactive story app based on the very same bedtime story to the App Store. Very soon, in fact. Bedtime for Sarah Sullivan marks the first in a planned series of ten, and the intention is to release an app shortly after each title goes to print.

The Bedtime for Sarah Sullivan app includes pretty much everything parents would want in an interactive bedtime story: narration, highlighted text to aid with reading along, character voices (supplied by Paniagua’s own daughter as well as her husband, Julian McMahon), animations, and of course some interactive bits. A couple of mini-games have also been included. One involves flying through space collecting ingredients for baking cookies (finishing the game also reveals a recipe for “Galaxy Cookies”), while the other is about finding hidden animals and learning about nocturnal versus diurnal behavior.

What’s most intriguing about Bedtime for Sarah Sullivan is the special Coloring Activity. It’s actually based on Dr. Wayne Dyer’s theory about how what we see, do, and think about right before bed (about 30 minutes or so) can affect both our dreams and our mood when we wake up. Paniagua wanted to know, “What if you implemented this at a developmental age?”

The idea is for children to use their imagination and draw up something right before bed, and an “Idea Generator” is also available if they have trouble thinking of something. What they draw and/or the mood it puts them in (preferably happy) should, in theory, have an impact on their dreams. Drawings can be saved from within the app to your device’s camera roll for easy sharing, too.

Bedtime for Sarah Sullivan is available on the App Store right now for $2.99 (no in-app purchases). If you’re interested in the physical book as well, you can pick it up in stores now for $13.95.

Mr. Sandman Brings An Otherworldly Beauty To iPad Children's Book

Posted by Rob LeFebvre on August 9th, 2012
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Here's a gorgeous-looking kids book, beautifully rendered for the iPad. The iTunes description promises stunning visuals, dark forests, starry skies, and captivating music. There's interactivity of a sort, though it's limited to specific tasks to continue the story, like telling some frogs to go to sleep with a spoken, "Shh!" or scratching an owl's belly.

You can interact with the book in English or French (the developers are based in France), so more than just us English-speakers can participate.

Mr. Sandman is the first app from developer Hokusbookus, but we're really looking forward to more. From the website:

At hocusbookus, we create beautiful books to see and touch. We are parents and all of our love goes into creating stories where visuals and sounds perfectly match for the pleasure to see children's smiles.

UPDATE: The contest ended a while back, and the company has just updated its website - so go check it out anyway.
Hocusbookus is running a contest now to win one of the 30 books they plan on offering, and entry is a simple newsletter sign-up, so head on over and check it out now.

Mr. Sandman is $4.99 and available now in the App Store.

Via: AppsPlayground

[gallery]