Living Books facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Living Books
Genres	Edutainment, interactive storybook
Developers	Broderbund (1992–1994, 1997–1998) Living Books (1994–1997) Wanderful Interactive (2012–2014)
Publishers	Broderbund (1992–1998) Random House (1994–1997) The Learning Company (1998–1999) Mattel (1999–2000) The Gores Group (2000–2001) Riverdeep (2001–2004) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2004–present) Wanderful Interactive (2012–present)
Platforms	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android
First release	7 February 1992
Latest release	7 February 2021

Living Books is a cool series of interactive adventures made for kids aged 3 to 9. Imagine a book that comes alive! These stories let you read along and play at the same time.

The series was first created by Mark Schlichting. Most of the early games were made by a company called Living Books for CD-ROMs. They were published by Broderbund for computers like Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. Years later, starting in 2010, the series got a new life! A company called Wanderful Interactive Storybooks brought them back for phones and tablets (iOS and Android).

The Living Books journey started in 1992. It began as a part of the Broderbund company. Their very first interactive story was based on a popular book called Just Grandma and Me. In 1994, Living Books became its own company. It was owned by both Broderbund and Random House. They kept making more games based on famous books like Arthur, Dr. Seuss, and Berenstain Bears.

Over time, many other companies started making similar games. This made it harder for Living Books to make money. In 1997, Broderbund bought Random House's share and closed the Living Books company. The rights to the series moved between a few different companies over the years. Eventually, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt got the rights. The series wasn't updated for a long time. But then, some of the original creators got the chance to bring the games back! They updated them for modern devices under the Wanderful Interactive Storybooks name, starting in 2010.

The Living Books series has won many awards and is loved by many.

What Are Living Books?

Living Books are like a mix of computer games and storybooks. They are digital versions of stories that combine cool animations, bright graphics, sounds, music, and special effects. They often take classic children's stories and make them interactive. The games are fun because you get to discover new things on every page!

How Do You Play?

Living Books feature highlighted text while the stories are being read by a narrator. Afterwards, players are able to interact with the environment via hotspots. The programs were released into many languages.

These interactive storybooks encourage you to be part of the story. You can "turn" the pages on your screen. You can also click on different parts of the pictures to hear sound effects or see short animations. If you click on words or sentences, you can hear them read aloud.

The games let you read the book in different languages, like US English, UK English, and Spanish. You can also choose to have the story read to you by a narrator. There are two main ways to enjoy the stories:

• Read To Me: In this mode, the narrator reads the story, and you just flip the pages. It's like a traditional storybook.
• Let Me Play: This mode lets you explore more! You can pause on any page and click around.

The story text is usually at the top of the page. As the narrator reads, each word lights up. After the narrator finishes a page, you can explore it. Click on objects to see what they do! You can also click on specific words to hear them again. The whole screen becomes a fun playground!

You'll see cool animations and hear characters talk. Clicking on hidden spots can reveal surprise animations, funny sounds, songs, and jokes. Some pages can have many different things to click on! You can move from page to page using arrows. The screen fades to black when you go to a new scene.

These programs also let you change things like how long the games are or how the speech sounds. Many of the games even came with guides for teachers, which had extra activities.

The Little Ark Interactive games, which are similar, work the same way. You can choose 'Read-to-me' for the narrator to tell the story with animations. Or, you can choose 'Let Me Play' to explore each page, clicking on things to find jokes and music.

Awards and Recognition

The Living Books series has won many awards over the years for being innovative and educational.

Little Ark Interactive Awards

Titles in the Series

Here's a list of the different Living Books titles and when they were released.

Little Ark Interactive Titles

These are similar interactive storybooks from Little Ark Interactive.

Images for kids

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  The decisions on the 'Quit' screen are presented as a straightforward 'yes' or 'no', as part of the series' easy-to-use design.

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  Living Books was the first company to make digital products with Dr. Seuss characters.

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  The Living Books series became very popular with children who have autism.

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  The idea to bring back Living Books in 2010 came from seeing how amazing the new iPad was.

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  20 years after they first came out, the original Living Books parts were used to create the Wanderful app, with even better ways to play.

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  Compute! magazine thought the series would make people want to buy CD-ROM players for their computers.

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  Living Books fixed a problem called 'software rot' (where old software doesn't work on new computers) by updating and re-releasing the games as 'Wanderful'.