As all parents know, the desire to read is very strong in a child’s development. Simple storybooks are usually the first books we introduce our kids to. If your child is like mine, one of their favorite times is when you sit down with them and read them a children’s story. With a loving voice and beautiful illustrations you are then able to whisk your child into another world; sometimes! It is true that reading helps reading skills in letter and word recognition, but if it does not grab and hold their attention, it becomes more of a lesson in frustration. If only there was a way to capture the essence of these children’s books and bring them to life at the same time.
Prior to 1992 most computer-based children stories were composed of the story, storybook pictures, sound effects, and had the ability to read the story to the child in English and usually a secondary language like Spanish. Ironically, if you selected the secondary language the print would still be in the primary language. This was due to the fact that programs like these were limited to how much space an average person was willing to give up on their hard drives. It was going to take much more programming space if these types of storybooks were ever going to evolve.
The CD Revolution. Around 1992, CD-ROM drives were just beginning to catch on and programmers were just starting to realize the potential of this media revolution. Instead of a software package being limited to seven to 15 megs of data, the programmer could now work with more than 600 megs on a single disk. This is an awesome number when you consider the fact that original Macintosh software only had 400K of space to work with. It was also about the same time that the term “educational multi-media” came of age with the release of what would become one of the most popular educational series called Living Books by Bröderbund (800/521-6263).
Bröderbund has (and still is) always been known for their cutting edge creations and the Living Books series are definitely cut from the same cloth. One could say that Living Books took a quantum leap beyond ordinary electronic books and set a new standard for the term multi-media. It showed how sight and sound could be gracefully combined to produce a tale for the young that truly lives up to the name Living Books. Since Living Books was released at a time when the average entry level Mac came with 4-5 megs of RAM, it was designed to only require about 2.5 megs of RAM. This also meant that these stories could run on a Mac LC or better (not sure about the Color Classic).
Overview. Basically, Living Books has three modes of operation; language, reading the story and interacting within the story. The first Living Book title Grandma and Me by Mercer Mayer does the story in English, Spanish, and Japanese. The thing that makes this feature unique is how the text changes to match the language chosen. This automatically makes these books an excellent candidate for elementary ESL classes. Regrettably, the number of languages offered on future stories was reduced to two with the elimination of Japanese.
Tell Me a Story. Watching a Living Book story is like watching a 20-minute animated short story. Unlike other electronic storybooks where one person does the narration and character voices, all the characters in each story (eight at last count) have a distinct personality and voice of their own. The artwork for each book truly lives up to and captures the style of the original storybooks which are also included with each story title. My son Alex loves to look at the storybook as the story is acted out on the monitor in 256 colors. I love how I can also use it as a way to get him to go to bed (mom and dad take note).
Things really come alive as the characters talk, move, sing and dance through the different stories available. With the addition of music, sound effects, humor, and great animation, the stories create a learning experience that can only be achieved through this multi-media format. These stories help improve word, line and phrase recognition as the story is told and highlighted. You can also click on the words and have them played back to help further enhance their word recognition skills.
Let’s Play. The third mode of operation is a direct spin-off of Bröderbund’s successful Playroom series. This is where you can slip the program into manual and step into the pages of the story and play. Each page of the living book series is a delight to explore and interact with. All you have to do is wander around the page with your mouse (or joysticks) as you click on the different objects within each page and watch what happens. Each page has over 25 different “hot spots” where a click of the mouse will get some type of reaction. This type of interface is also a great way to introduce a 3- to 4-year-old child to the use and operation of the mouse.
You never know what type of reaction you may get as you try out the different items found on each page. Clicking of a door may cause a doorbell to ring followed by someone opening the door, a click on a tree may chase a bird out of it, a cowboy hat will say “Yahoo” when selected. This is just a very small sampling of what can happen when you play within the pages. It is like a visit to wonderland and you are Alice (or Alex).
Since the original release of Grandma and Me in 1992, the Living Book library of stories have grown to eight. No matter which Living Book you buy, you can be guaranteed that it will live up to the feeling and style of the original story. I only regret that Bröderbund in their infinite wisdom decided to delete the Japanese language option, which is why I give the over all series 4 1/2 joysticks (illegal step backwards). Now for your further edification is a sampling of some of their stories.
Grandma and Me (ages 3-8)
 
As I covered earlier, Grandma and Me by Mercer Mayer was the first Living Book released for the Mac. It set down the foundation for the direction other software would follow in. Since its release, it has received 12 awards for excellence in education. The story is about a little critter who goes with his grandmother to the beach and the fun he has there. This is also the only Living Book that does the story in English, Spanish, and Japanese. My son finds this particular Living Book to be his favorite because he had a very similar outing with his grandmother. During the day you will fly a kite, go for a dip with Grandma, build a sand castle, and much more. The only problem you may have after watching it is trying to get the sand out of your hair.
 
Little Monster at School (ages 3-8)
 
Little Monster at School is one of four new titles that were released in 1994. Of all the Living books I have looked at, this title is one of the best done stories. What makes this story so unique is how they were able to enhance it by using techniques that only could be done in this multimedia CD format. Within the story are exercises in counting and the alphabet. You can also get better use of these learning modules in the “play” mode. Another feature I like is how they slipped two mini stories into the bulk of the story. All I will tell you is that one of them is called Little Monster and the 3 People. This story is the second adaptation in a series of storybooks written by Mercer Mayer. Just make sure you have your homework done before the story ends.
 
Ruff’s Bone (ages 3-8)
 
Ruff’s Bone by Eli Noyes has to be the strangest of the eight Living Books out at this point. It really should be called Ruff Through the Looking Glass with all the things that happens to our four legged canine friend. The story starts out on a Sunday morning with Ruff waiting for his master to throw him his weekly bone. After a moment, Ruff’s master exits the house with bone in hand and proceeds to throw it to Ruff. It looks like his master does not know his own strength and winds up throwing the bone over Ruff’s head and into his neighbor’s backyard. This then sets the pace of the story as we follow Ruff in his quest for his bone. In his search, we follow Ruff to the cave of bones, undersea, the bone planet and many other crazy stops in between. If I did not know better, I would say that this story almost borders on the theater of the absurd because of the zany nature of the story. Things get even crazier when you play within the story. If anything, this story teaches that perseverance is the key to success as Ruff refuses to give up his search for his bone. Now if only Ruff could remember where he buried it, but that’s another story (just kidding).
 
Arthur’s Birthday (ages 6-10)
 
Well it looks like another year has gone by and it is time for Arthur to have his next birthday. All was going well in preparation for it until that day he was handing out the invitations at school and discovered that Muffy was also having her birthday party on the same day. This meant that they would wind up with half a party since all the girls would go to Muffy’s party and the boys would attend Arthur’s. Come along and follow the story as Arthur figures out how to save both parties
Arthur’s Birthday by Marc Brown is a sequel to an earlier Living Book called Arthur’s Teacher Troubles. Arthur’s Birthday is a wonderful story that shows how friends can work together in order to find a solution to the duel birthdays. I also like the way Bröderbund/Random House kept the continuity between the two stories by having the same people who did the first story reprise their voices for Arthur’s Birthday. This adds a dimension to this story that cannot be found in the other Living Books. It is more like going back to visit with a friend for a second time. With this type of continuity, it would be great if another one of Arthur’s adventures was done. After all, there are over 12 more titles to choose from.
At present time there are a total of eight Living Books to choose from. The other titles include Harry and the Haunted House, The Tortoise and the Hare, Arthur’s Teacher Troubles, and New Kids on the Block. I wish I could tell you more about these titles but ever since Random House merged with Bröderbund, they have become very tight fisted with their review copies. The only title I was even able to obtain from them was Ruff’s Bone, the rest I bought. But I digress (too late). No matter which story you choose, you are sure to introduce your child to a world that they won’t just read, they will enter a world that they will live and play within.
In the last year a couple of new titles have appeared that have followed a different tact in developing multi-media books. The Lion King Storybook came out for the IBM about a 2 months ago. Disney hopes to release it for the Mac in the next month or so. I talked to the Disney software division and they said that Mac owners are in for a real treat when it is released. They also told me that the Lion King will go one step beyond the present abilities of the Living Book series. Stay tuned.
