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 series of interactive read-along adventures aimed at children aged 3–9. Created by Mark Schlichting, the series was mostly developed by Living Books for CD-ROM and published by Broderbund for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. Two decades after the original release, the series was re-released by Wanderful Interactive Storybook for iOS and Andoid.

The series began in 1992 as a Broderbund division that started with an adaptation of Mercer Mayer's Just Grandma and Me. In 1994, the Living Books division was spun-off into its own children's multimedia company, jointly owned by Broderbund and Random House. The company continued to publish titles based on popular franchises such as Arthur, Dr. Seuss, and Berenstain Bears.

The next few years saw a saturated market begin to squeeze Living Books company's profits; in 1997 Broderbund agreed to purchase Random House's 50% stake in Living Books and proceeded to dissolve the company. Broderbund was acquired by The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), Mattel Interactive, and The Gores Group over the following years, and the series was eventually passed to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which currently holds the rights. The series was kept dormant for many years until former developers of the series acquired the licence to publish updated and enhanced versions of the titles under the Wanderful Interactive Storybook series in 2010.

The series has received acclaim and numerous awards.

Awards

Little Ark Interactive awards

Plot and gameplay

Living Books are interactive storybooks – effectively a blend of computer games and hypertext fiction They are "electronic versions of either narrative or expository texts that combine high quality animations and graphics with speech, sound, music, and special effect". Primarily using classic children's literature source material, the series adapted these stories CD and dressed them up with music, animation and real-voice narrations. The games did not live off of profound aesthetics, but from the sheer joy of discovery and the effect.

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.

The plots are faithful to their respective books. The games are generally adaptions of books from popular children's franchises such as Arthur, Berenstain Bears, and Dr. Seuss, however three titles exclusively created by Living Books (not being existing book adaptions) included Ruff's Bone (co-produced by Colossal Pictures), Harry and the Haunted House, and a retelling of The Tortoise and the Hare.

Interactive storybooks are a storytelling device that encourages kids to take part. Users are able to virtually turn the pages, click on various areas to get sound effects and short animation sequences, or they can click on words and sentences to hear them read aloud. The games allow players read the book in US English, UK English, and other languages, or to have it read to them in each language by a narrator. Players are offered two ways of reading the story: Read To Me (only allowing players to flip pages) and Let Me Play (including player interaction). The former imitated a traditional storybook, with linear progression from beginning to end, while the latter offered a more compartmentalized experience, where children can pause to investigate the various worlds. The story text is written at the top of the page and highlighted as each word is read by the narrator, however some additional character dialogue is not printed. After a child finishes reading a page, they can explore it by clicking on objects to see what they do. They can hear selected words or phrases by clicking on them. The screen "becomes a playground".

Players experience animations and voice acting, while clicking on hidden hotspots reveal surprise animations, sound effects, songs, and sight gags. One page can have up to 44 active buttons and 5 navigational buttons. Each scene is self-contained and players can navigate page-by-page using the forward and backward cursor keys. The screen fades to black during the transition between scenes. The programs came with built-in customizing features to include, exclude, sequence, and vary the length of the games; or to adjust the speech. Many of the titles are accompanied by teacher guides with photocopiable resources.

Little Ark Inteactive follow a similar formula, either the player can choose 'Read-to-me' and have the narrator tell the story which is supplemented by animations; or they can choose 'Let Me Play' and explore page by page, clicking on hotspots to reveal sight gags and music cues.

Titles in the series

Little Ark Interactive titles

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' ease-of-use design philosophy.

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  Living Books became the first company to create multimedia products featuring Dr. Seuss characters after securing the digital rights.

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  The Living Books series became especially popular with autistic children.

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  Schon was inspired to revive the Living Books series in 2010 after observing the capabilities of the recently released iPad.

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  20 years after their release, the Living Books assets were extracted from customer CD-ROM copies, and arranged into the Wanderful app platform with improved interactivity.

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  Compute! thought the series would drive customers to purchase CD-ROM players for their computers to run the software.

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  Living Books overcame software rot, where older software is unplayable on modern hardware, through its Wanderful enhancement and re-release.