History
Conception
Inspiration and pitch
The initial motivation behind the series came from a childhood fantasy of Mark Schlichting's to enter into the picture book world of '' Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who!''; to visit the houses of Whoville and interact with the "weird and fantastical instruments and contraptions". As a boy he was enamoured by the fantasy worlds of children's picture books through Dr. Seuss and the magic of animation through Disney. Further inspiration came out of his concern as a father to video gaming boys. By 1986 Schlichting had "Nintendo guilt", observing how his sons were engaged with Nintendo titles for hours, working cooperatively and diligently, but unable to focus on their homework. Their focus was on level mastery, but they couldn't find any titles both educational and fun enough to hold their interest. Schlichting wanted this same level of cognitive involvement with something more substantive, matching the attention-grabbing play aspects of popular games with meaningful content. He devised a concept of "highly interactive animated picture books for children" that would "delight and engage kids but that also had real learning content as well", which would evolve into Living Books. After receiving a degree in fine arts and working as a book publishing art director, he retrained in traditional animation. Schlichting entered the children's software industry in 1987, and was contracted as a freelance animator and digital illustrator at Broderbund Software for early floppy disk PC games including games within the ''Approval and prototypes
In 1989 Dutch electronics hardware manufacturer Phillips happened to observe the Living Books prototype while on a tour of the Broderbund offices, and offered the company $500,000 to produce a title that would run on a new television set-top box they were in the process of developing. As a result, after four months of pitching Schlichting was given the go-ahead by Carlston to put together a prototype using an early version of what became MacroMedia Director. Carlston was drawn to the idea because he had noticed a demographic trend of births among Broderbund staff jumping to 15 a year, suggesting a "demand for software to help small children learn". Living Books married this demographic trend to new CD-ROM technology that Schlichting was interested in. Baker was put in charge of Living Books. According to ''St Louis Post-Dispatch'', Schlichting "persuaded his employer" to "spend millions of dollars on his notion to create Living Books". As a result, Schlichting's demo concept became a development group. By 1990, the Broderbund's Living Books group had less than 5 people. After a few months of development, the first fully-featured prototype for Living Books was complete; it was an adaption of Mercer Mayer's ''Little Monsters at School''. This beta version included two pages to demonstrate how a transition might work, had the main character narrate the story, and included highlighted text as he read.Archived aDevelopment (1990–1992)
Creative arts
Though storyboards and layouts were often sketched out on paper, most of the animation was developed straight into the software instead of being scanned first. All the creative assets were developed on the Mac, as Living Books believed their media tools were the most advanced. The team usedProgramming
Schlichting campaigned for tools technologically ahead of their time to improve quality. In the early 1990s, CD-ROMs represented a "dramatic leap forward" and the promise that computers could offer immersive, interactive experiences. Software designers such as Schlichting looked to the new medium as an opportunity to reinvent the classic children's book". In response, Broderbund offered Schlichting an additional team of programmers. At this point in time, most Broderbund products were built primarily by one programmer per title, with assistance from contractors along the way. However, Schlichting wanted an engine that would allow the game to be pre-emptively designed to play across multiple platforms (Mac, PC, etc.), thereby allowing the CD-ROM to become more interactive than it had in the past. Programmer Glenn Axworthy created the Living Books engine, which made it possible for products to be written in Macromedia Director, then to edit the files into a "cross-platform, optimized playback format" that slow speed CD-ROMs could then play into limited memory computers at the appropriate speed "regardless of the speed of the CPU of the computer running the product". The Living Books engine "served as the foundation for the entire product line" and the same underlying technology was still being used in 1998, just with better animation and interactive design. The playback engine was designed to work across platforms without the animation needing to be redone. Matt Siegel created an animation driver that made "animations run consistently fast regardless of their size". This unique CD-ROM playback/interaction driver required three years of development using a core team of three programmers, who had to resolve issues such as compression, cross-platform operation, timing, and device control. The cutting-edge technology was used to make pages load, characters dance, and perfect the interactivity without much tweaking required. Key to the programming was in devising a way to allow for instantaneous mouse responses. This was "crucial", as without it playtesters would become frustrated by the delayed response to their mouse. The driver applied a "running man" during the delay between book pages, loading the animations while the program read the text aloud on each new page so they were ready to play. The driver would stream sound to occupy the user while images and animation were being loaded. This "trick", of turning off ambient movements until the biggest movement had finished playing, allowed Living Books to squeeze the program down to 2MB of ram. ''Just Grandma and Me'' ended up using 128MB of the available CD-ROM space. Later, graphic technician Rob Bell expanded the program with the interpretive languageDesign
Interactivity design
Interactivity was vital in the design of the programs; when presenting demos to corporate executives, Schlichting would observe them fighting over the mouse and suggesting where to click. The games were packed with interactive hotspots. Schlichting chose to make "everything that looked clickable to actually be clickable", saturating each page with hotspots, to ensure the user was in control and supported in their decisions. He selected to existing picture books or designed books full of scenes that allowed for a wealth of exploration through clicking. All the objects, characters and individual words were "alive" and triggered by contact. Some hotspots were related to the story. However, peripheral "fun" hot spots were only added sparingly, so they would add surprise and offer "intermittent reinforcement" to encourage further exploration. Examples in ''Just Grandma and Me'' include: clams that sing in perfect three-part harmony, and a starfish that performs a vaudevillian routine with a top hat and cane. Interaction was designed to be "non-obvious", with hotspots including inanimate objects like chairs. On average, ''Arthur's Computer Adventure'' has 23 hotspots per screen, while five activities are included within the program. ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' contained around seven times as many incidental hot spots as supplemental ones. The gags were more layered in ''Dr Seuss’ ABC'' such that the user could click the same hotspot multiple times and get different responses. ''Arthur's Teacher Trouble'' had secret paper aeroplanes on every page; the Broderbund hint hotline received calls into the early morning asking where these planes were hidden. Activities were added to help develop matching, rhyming, memory and observation skills, among others. Each activity has three levels of difficulty. ''Stellaluna'' contained a 'Bat Quiz" to teach scientific facts about bats. ''Arthur's Reading Race'' contains an activity called Let Me Write, which allows kids to drag and drop screen objects onto a simple sentence to modify it or create their own. The title also contained a spelling mini-game, separate from the story, which users could play against an opponent or the computer. In ''Arthur's Computer Adventure'', which combined a storybook with an activity center, users were able to play the in-universe title Deep Dark Sea that is central to the plot. The soundscape was important to the series; each title consists of hundreds of digital voices and sound effects, such as waves splashing, breezes blowing, and birds chirping in the case of ''Just Grandma and Me''. Some of the sound effects were "clever", for example the poppy flowers made popping noises, and the rocks performed rock 'n' roll guitar riffs. One of the later titles ''The Berenstain Bears In the Dark'' featured an all-original soundtrack featuring bluegrass musicians, including Mike Marshall, Sally van Meter, Tony Furtado, and Todd Phillips, while ''Stellaluna'' had a soundtrack with original music interwoven with African percussion. A band 'The Wild Mangos' provided original songs for ''The Tortoise and the Hare'', while Gary Schwantes produced music for ''Dr Seuss's ABC''. ''Harry and the Haunted House'' came with 9 original songs which could be played on a CD player. The original songs in ''Sheila Rae, the Brave'', about the adventures of a mouse heroine, featured lyrics that turn into pictures of the things they describe to encourage word recognition. They were written by Living Books composer Pat Farrell. In 1996, Living Books released their first sing-along animated storybook program. Upon previewing a gag in ''Just Grandma and Me'' where a bird swoops across the screen with an aeroplane sound effect, developers noted this elicited laughs and chuckles in the audience. The developers realised that with their visual awareness focused on the animation, the incongruent audio had a more subconscious cognitive impact, and the discrepancy between sound and audio created a "brain hiccup" where users would find the moment 'cute' but unsure exactly why.Ease of use design
Ease of use was another important design philosophy; the interface was designed such that it could be used by even the youngest of children unaccompanied. Schlichting wanted the series to be "as easy to use as CD-audio". Decisions are presented as a straightforward choice, and "'yes' or 'no'" is consistently used throughout. ''Dust Or Magic, Creative Work in the Digital Age'' asserted that this is an application ofLanguage design
A challenge of the series was to inviting children to engage with "black-and-white abstraction" of text, when the relatable imagery proved more inviting. Schlichting found that a program can capture 80% of a child's attention for spoken information that they can both see and interact with. Living Books experimenting with 'living' text, where children could tap on any word and hear it pronounced or build the whole sentence word by word. Schlichting chose to highlight the text because he "found kids follow anything that moves...we could get them to follow the reading if that was the only thing on the screen that was moving". One of the biggest benefits of using a CD-ROM was the "ability to store lots of high quality speech". Every word had to be recorded in two different styles, once as part of the story and once as individual words which could be clicked on one-by-one. The individual words were recorded with fluctuation to fit how would fit into the larger sentence; this allowed emerging readers to map the language and construct the story in sentence units. The New Kid on the Block, which presented a collection of 18 funny poems by poet Jack Prelutsky, allowed players to click on the words to reveal a representative animation of the noun or verb, turning the program into a "living dictionary". This was used as an alternative to having the player click on illustrations directly. Both the first two titles in the series had English and Spanish language settings while ''Just'' ''Grandma and Me'' could also be played in French, German, and Japanese, all featured on the one disc; this multilingual feature would be explored in future entries. Most Living Books would be released in US English, UK English, and Spanish. The UK English versions had British accents for all the characters and colloquial words changed when appropriate (i.e., Mum not Mom). ''The New Kid on the Block'' is the only monolingual Living Book. The British English dub was published by Brøderbund from 1996 to 2000, and a French dub was published by UbiSoft's Pointsoft label in 1996 While not released in Latin America the Latin Spanish dub was created in 1992/1993-1996 and released in the US version. Two titles were published in Hebrew in 1995, while four titles were dubbed and published into Japanese and Italian. ''Just Grandma and Me'' 2.0 featured a European Spanish dub. Delta's Livros Vivos saw the series published in Brazilian Portuguese in 1998, and the German dub byEducation design
On the series' potential as a learning tool, Schlichting said, "software never replaces the place of a good teacher, but there are times when the teacher needs help" and that multimedia products "are great ways to do that". Schlichting resisted use of the term "Edutainment" to describe the series, though he felt the titles were more substantive than Nintendo games and described them as "invisible education." Marylyn Rosenblum, the vice president of education sales and marketing for Broderbund, commented, we don't make claims for teaching reading... nsteadwe encourage children's natural love of reading." Originally designed for children in preschool and early elementary aged three to eight, the storybooks found audiences ranging as young as two and some programs reached kids nine and older, Schlichting noted that while younger players would click the words in sequence to "map the story", older players will click the words out-of-order to build their own silly sentences, allowing for "greater language play". In ''Harry and the Haunted House'', older players found amusement in creating the sentence "the zombie has a stinky but . This was a serendipitous form of play Schlichting never intended or expected. The user was provided two options to engage, a passive 'read to me' mode and the interactive 'play along' mode. By offering different play patterns depending on the user's level of reading fluency players felt able to "own" the story by "playing with the individual pieces". Users learn to read new words and also discover how words are constructed into sentences. ''Arthur's Computer Adventure'' contains 401 words of interactive text estimated to be at grade 3 readability level. The series included moral lessons, for instance ''Berenstain Bears Get into a Fight'' was released to help children with conflict resolution. Lucinda Ray, Education Product Manager at Brøderbund, developed the concept for, edited, and produced the ''Living Books'' School Edition. These School Editions were developed with the aid of classroom teachers, reading specialists, and curriculum experts, with an integrated language arts approach. School Editions contain: the CD-ROM, a print version of the title book, Lesson Plans, a thematic unit with activities, an annotated bibliography of relevant literature, printable worksheets, and bonus books or audio cassettes. They were designed specifically for teachers who are using the programs in a classroom, and included tech tips like shortcuts and special key commands to help guide the lesson. In 1994, Broderbund produced a supplementary set for teachers called the ''Living Books Framework'', featuring integrated teaching material for each of the first four Living Books titles for $489.95 including the Living Books CD-ROMs; presented in a three-ring binder, they featured the original picture storybooks, several other books, and a tape of Jack Prelusky reading his 'The New Kid on the Block' poems. The kits also contained 'A Book Lover Approaches the Computer' articles that addressed key concerns of parents and teachers, technical tips, a curriculum matrix, a thematic unit, and classroom activities.Independence (1992–1994)
''Just Grandma and Me'' release
Broderbund released their reimagining of ''Just Grandma and Me'' in 1992, and while there was an initial concern whether there were enough customers with CD drives to run the game, in the first six months Broderbund sold over 10 times more copies than they had initially projected. MacUser did a speed test on the storybook to check the loading time when turning pages and found that most take less than 15 seconds. Meanwhile, not having his hand in the day-to-day creative process of that work turned Mayer on to the idea of doing CD-ROMs himself. He and his partner, John Sansevere, formed their own company Big Tuna New Media to develop Mayer's animated storybooks. Teaming up withJoint venture
At theDr. Seuss license
Growth (1994–1996)
Commercial success
The games were highly financially successful. However, the low price point and large development costs, coupled with the recentness of CD-ROMS, made it difficult for ''Living Books'' to turn a profit. Additionally, at the time, the school market is still fledgling, and schools rarely had the funding to afford computers for their students; as a result most of ''Living Books sales were into the home market. By 1995, Living Books would still be targeting its products at home buyers. In the first half of 1993, Broderbund sales jumped 69 percent, to $73 million, according to the Software Publishers Association, aided by Carmen Sandiego, Kid Pix, and the debut of Living Books. ''Just Grandma and Me'' became one of the best-selling CDs for children on its release in 1993. By August 1994, the series had sold tens of thousands of copies, and that year pre-tax profits of Living Books exceeded $6,000,000. By late 1994, the simultaneous success of best seller ''Finding source material
At the time, there was a "trend toward familiar characters". Jason Lippe, general manager at multimedia educational store Learningsmith, opined that newer educational programs were more successful in capturing children's interest because they were based upon characters the children already know. Publishers often sought stories from popular culture like film and TV. In contrast, ''Living Books'' primarily sourced material from classic literature including traditional tales like ''The Tortoise and the Hare,'' and enduring children's picture books from well-known authors such as Dr. Seuss's ''Green Eggs and Ham''. ''The Cat in the Hat'' was released on the 40th anniversary year of the original book's publication. On May 24, 1994, Living Books acquired worldwide media rights to Berenstain Bears' First Time Books series from authors Stan and Jan Berenstain; the book rights were owned by Random House. ''Living Books'' sought to secure the rights to stories that had already seen "success and acceptance" among teachers, parents, and publishers. Stories like those of Mercer Mayer had been "well received" by children, leading to ''Living Books''Adaptation
The development team were committed to, as often as possible, working closely with each author to ensure a faithful rendering of the original story and its intent. These interactive storybooks were complete, animated renditions as opposed to the "highly edited and abridged versions" from other companies. Computer Museum Guide comments, "it's no coincidence that the books and the corresponding software are both popular". The use of a popular character like Arthur gave ''Arthur's Computer Adventure'' "significant shelf and package appeal to kids". The Living Books page illustrations generally replicated those from the book. However, ''Stellaluna'', a story by Janell Cannon about a young fruit bat who becomes separated from her mother, varied from the source material through its language, visual perspectives, images, and animations which affected the orientation, social distance, and tone of the experience. ''Reframing research and literacy pedagogy relating to CD narratives'' writes that when a character queries Stellaluna's unusual behaviours, they gaze directly at the reader and demand an interpersonal engagement of the reader, as opposed to the book version where the character's gaze is directed at Stellaluna as an offer and the reader looks on with interpersonal detachment. ''Living Books''Disability
Little Ark Interactive
In 1996, Broderbund created the division Little Ark Interactive as a Living Books imprint. The project was at the direction of Doug Carlston, co-founder and CEO of Broderbund, whose father had been a priest. The joint venture's new division was created to develop and sell children's titles based on the Old Testament, a niche market with competitors like Compton's New Media product ''Children's Bible Stories''. Little Ark Interactive then sought out Red Rubber Ball, the multimedia division of Atlanta-basedTrouble (1996–1997)
Market saturation
Living Books began to face growing competition from Disney Interactive (Return to Broderbund
This climate affected the profit projections of Living Books. In 1996–7, Broderbund enlisted Jeff Charvat to work on the troubled series and making it work; Charvat "charg din with answers, rather than questions", a strategy Charvat later admitted " an't the way to go". With mounting losses, Random House started trying to sell its shares and began negotiating with Broderbund. On January 17, 1997 it was reported that Broderbund and Random House had "reached preliminary agreement on key terms" to transition Random House's stake in the 50–50 joint venture to Broderbund in a buy back, though it would need to be approved by each company's Boards of Directors; Random House would continue to be a content partner for future Living Books products. Under the new arrangement, Random House would continue to sell Living Books via their bookstore channels, help Broderbund acquire content licences for future titles, while royalties would be determined on a case-by-case basis. At the time, Joe Durrett, Chief Executive Officer of Broderbund noted, "although Living Books remains a small portion of Broderbund's revenue, it shares our focus on children's education and will continue to play a central role in educational software development." Randi Benton, president of Random House New Media, felt that integrating Living Books into Broderbund would allow it to better take advantage of the company's sales and marketing. Random House was to receive an undisclosed amount of cash and Broderbund stock. The agreement was signed on January 20, 1997, and Broderbund hinted at a management reshuffle. At this point it was unsure whether Living Books would be folded into Broderbund or remain a separate entity. This was not uncommon at the time for book publishers to revise their multimedia strategies. Random House would also sell its minority stakes inDecline (1997–2000)
Later activities
August 27, 1996 saw the company release an interactive website at www.livingbooks.com called Living Books' Corner of the Universe; Tortoise from "The Tortoise and the Hare" guided visitors through three planets: the Kids' Planet, the Grown-Ups' Planet and the Corporate Planet. Narrative Communications, Enliven streaming technology was used to allow demos to be played over the internet. In 1997, Broderbund bundled Living Books titles in groups of four and re-released them as ''Living Books Libraries'' and a competitive price point of $30. They contained "a special bilingual component that includes Spanish versions of selected student reproducible pages and a discussion of the special needs of second language learners", as well as a Living Books Alive video demonstrating the practicable application within the classroom.The Learning Company et al. sale
On August 31, 1998, Broderbund was bought in a''Wanderful'' reboot (2010–2012)
Reboot conception
Reboot development
The team had a significant hurdle to overcome in the next stage of development. While they had secured the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt rights to Living Books, the assets were not readily available. Broderbund's documentation, scripts, source code, and product assets (graphics, animations, sound, and music files) had been saved onto a set of CD-ROMs and placed in the company's product archives. However, Broderbund's turbulent company history at the turn of the millennium led to much of this archive being lost. Therefore, Wanderful hired original Broderbund programmers to re-create modules from scratch. Meanwhile, master archives of assets were created by acquiring customer copies of original Living Books products to extract the files from the CD-ROMs. Axworthy identified not having the source code as the biggest challenge. Once the assets were retrieved, the titles still required significant modifications in order to optimise their "interaction and responsiveness"; this involved reprogramming how user interactions would be interpreted as actions. As a result, page introductions and animated sequences were able to be interruptible, which was key to making the product work on tablets. Wanderful added settings to allow the parent or teacher to "modify the interactivity to customize the mode of operation" to be appropriate for the child, being able to choose between an 'interruptible' mode (where clicking triggers an action – useful for word recognition) and a 'patience mode' (where players must wait for the current action to complete – useful for ADD children) to suit different child learning styles. Interruptible mode offered language exploration opportunities by allowing children to play with the beginning sounds of each word in a "rapid fire"; e.g. "Baa-baa-baa-baby". This new option benefited users through self-paced interaction and repetition, and the "ability to click a particular word 30 times in a row is like having an infinitely patient, ever-available teacher or parent". Meanwhile, no changes were made to the user interface or appearance. The upgrade was made more complex through the addition of a page navigation and language selection system, as well as synchronising the interruptible 2D animations with the audio sounds and music. Additionally, the animations and sounds had to be interruptible and able to be repeat rapidly if the user chose to frenetically interact with the system. All this complexity and the many components that implement these capabilities are rolled up into the User Interactivity and Action Interpreter boxes. The team managed the display of ancillary assets in HTML/JavaScript, while the graphics and layout was done using CSS templates this process added many months of effort to the schedule. This technology suited a "blended learning environment", combining "both face-to-face and distance learning". The titles were presented through a dynamic language function that allows readers to switch languages whenever they want. Titles came with two languages (either US English and Spanish, or UK English and French, that the user could toggle through), and offered in-app purchases for additional languages. Wonderful announced in they 2012 that upcoming versions of the interactive storybooks would also be available in Japanese, German, Italian, U.K. English and Brazilian Portuguese. Touching the upper right and left blue triangles reveals pop-up page navigation thumbnails, and pop-up language selection buttons respectively. There was also an option to show where the hotspots are. The titles included interactive features for multi-touch devices and refreshed art work for higher-resolution displays than was available at their original release. Players could buy the right to perpetual updates for $7.99. Deluxe versions of the titles were made available for teachers with bonus features including the 30 page curriculum plan Teacher's Guides originally made for classrooms. Ray opted not to alter these much from the originals, which had been carefully constructed by a team of professionals, though the guides were cognisant of the current USA Common Core State Standards. These educator-focused Classroom Activities Guide were available for $2.99 as an in-app purchase, and tied each storybook to reading, arts, math, social studies and other subjects inspired by the narrative and adhering to Common Core State Standards. They also included printable pages of puppets, activity sheets, and images from the stories. Additional content was added in-game; for example ''Arthur's Teacher Trouble'', a story focused around a 3rd grade Spelling Bee, was supplemented by three pages of interactive 3rd grade spelling words.Reboot release and current era
Seven of the updated and enhanced storybooks were released on iOS throughout 2012, while Android and Mac OS versions were added from 2013. Wanderful's first four titles, released through 2012 at a price point of $4.99, were ''Arthur's Teacher Troubles'' (originally 1992), ''Little Monsters at School'' (originally 1993), ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' (originally 1993), and ''Harry and the Haunted House'' (originally 1994). Harry and the Haunted House was released in October to coincide with Halloween. November 2012 saw ''The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight'' released as the fifth title (originally 1995). ''The New Kid on the Block'' was released October 29, 2013 as the ninth. The Mac version was released on April 11, 2013. Shlichting noted, "You're looking at a few dollars profit for an app instead of $30 for a CD game, and users expect more than they used to. To be a sustainable company, you have a higher bar for sales and quality." Living Books Samplers, standalone CD-ROMs which had been given away with the original Living Books for free in magazines or as built-in catalogs with the programs, were compiled and released as the ''Living Books Sampler'' free app with an interactive one-page sample of each title, and was updated as more storybook were re-released; ''Living Books Sampler'' was released on December 13, 2012 on iOS and April 25, 2013 for Mac OS X. The app is "hosted" by Simon, the narrator from Wanderful's classic version of the Aesop's fable Tortoise and the Hare. The app also includes Wanderful's Classroom Activities Overview and a Classroom Activities Preview for one of the storybooks, both as PDF documents. ''Living Books Sampler'' contained over 250 interactive elements. Little Ark Interactive became a wholly owned subsidiary of Wanderful. Two titles from the affiliate were re-released in March 2014. The third, Noah's Ark, was released in 2016. They aimed to continue releasing titles under this banner " to help children discover a lasting love of language through story exploration and learn important lessons from the Bible." At the ISTE (International Society for Technology & Education) 2014 conference, Software MacKiev and Wanderful Interactive Storybooks announced the availability of ''Stellaluna'' for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch and Mac OSX computers. Software MacKiev would release the iOS versions of four storybooks: Dr Seuss' ABC, ''Green Eggs and Ham, Stellaluna, and The Cat in the Hat,'' though Wanderful's Dr. Seuss titles would be removed from the App Store to prevent confusion over the similarly titled Oceanhouse Media apps. Oceanhouse Media would become the largest interactive books publisher on Amazon Fire TV by 2018, and had 62 titles including versions of the same titles that Living Books had adapted. In March 2016, Schon donated to The Strong Museum, The Strong museum hundreds of materials that document the Living Books' history, including games and company records from between 1993 and 2000. Wanderful currently has 9 employees and has generated $1 million in sales. In 2020, Wanderful announced that their Classroom Activities Guides would be offered for free with their storybook apps to assist families during COVID-19 isolation. To date, the first Living Books title ''Just Grandma and Me'' has sold over 4 million copies in seven languages, while ''Harry and the Haunted House'' has sold over 300,000 copies in six languages. The Living Books series as a whole went on to sell tens of millions of copies in multiple languages. Living Books titles are currently available through Wanderful Interactive Storybooks, Wanderful Interactive Storybooks' series of app re-releases on iOS. The Living Books rights are currently licensed from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Legacy
Contemporary opinions
Modern opinions
Creator opinions
Schlchting acknowledges that Living Books became a household name, but "only after a struggle". According to him, Living Books became the industry's first truly interactive storybooks and "defined the category". Schlichting asserts that the series' lack of install and its automatic play feature was revolutionary for the time. He noted that the "attract mode" was so popular that parents would write in to say that their kids had learnt all the moves and would dance along. Schlichting later learnt that his direct address technique was one of the methodologies of Montessori education, though he had added it because "it seemed right". Schlichting discovered that children with autistic or with special needs felt that their decisions "'made' the animation happen", and that they were able to map this feeling of control onto the real world. Schlichting's ex-coworker Jesse Scholl opined that he "knew so much about how children think and what they cared about". Mickey W. Mantle, president and CEO, Wanderful reflected ""Living Books has such an amazing legacy, remembered by children, trusted by parents and embraced by the educational community" through "elegant, interactive-rich...production values". Over the years, Schlichting has had many people tell him that they learned English from Living Books. George Consagra, executive producer of ''Ruff's Bone'', thought Living Books were "pioneers in the art of interactive storytelling". Prior to his work on ''Ruff's Bone'', Noyes had been inspired by ''Just Grandma and Me'', subsequently seeing CD-ROMs as the "perfect modern-day medium" for his children's projects. Angie Simas, who ran Broderbund's first website, came to the company as an interim job while seeking a teaching position, though after observing Living Books two weeks in she was inspired to change her career to the computing industry. Axworthy recalling his daughter not knowing about his software career, and one day gushing about a product she used at school, ''Sheila Rae, the Brave'' about two sisters who learn to love and depend on each other, not knowing it was worked on by her father. He recalled Schlichting as being difficult to work with, but appreciated the impact he had on children's lives. Mantle noted that Living Books were "pioneering apps on Macs of a generation ago over" and that over the years they'd "had many requests from Mac-using teachers and parents" to revive the programs. so he was "excited to make these great story experiences again available for the Mac". He said the project came "full circle"." In 2014, he noted "Wanderful Apps have been long been favorites of special needs children in the autistic community."Relationship to other series
Critical reception
As a learning tool
Many reviewers praised the series as a learning tool. ''Multiple Perspectives on Difficulties in Learning Literacy and Numeracy'' felt the series offers children a narrative context to explore while giving them authority and control over the interface to motivate them to learn. ''The New York Times'' described it as "a reading lesson dressed up as an interactive cartoon". ''Compute!'' felt that the interaction led players to a "cartoon fantasy...wonderful, witty world of zaniness" that was both fun and educational. ''Children's Interactions And Learning Outcomes With Interactive Talking Books'' deemed the series "very much 'edutainment’". Folha appreciated that the games did not present the player with puzzles to solve. ''Multiple Perspectives on Difficulties in Learning Literacy and Numeracy'' asserts that the software had been "cleverly crafted" so that play could not commence until after the page had been read with each word highlighted, offering a narrative context for the children. The Educational Technology Handbook praised the series' 'whole language' approach. According to Technology & Learning, Living Books has the "ever-present message that reading is joyful, important and empowering". ''Tampa Bay Times'' wrote that they "respect their audience's intelligence". The Baltimore Sun felt the series was " educational and entertaining". ''The Guardian'' felt the series was " well suited for Years 1 and 2, and provide stories with patterned and predictable structures."Hotspots and interactivity
The series has been praised for its use of hotspots and interactivity. ''The Age'' noted that upon the series' original release, "some people saw it simply as a form of interactive cartoon, while others have described the Living Books series as little more than a talking book". Compute thought that in "typical Broderbund fashion", Living Books "goes way beyond a simple storytelling program". ''CD-ROMs Rated'' by Les Kranz praised the number of clickable areas in ''Little Monster at School''. The Independent liked the "hidden cartoons in every page". Compute! wrote Living Books is "overflowing with one enchanting discovery after another". Folha appreciated that the series encouraged players to discover by moving around the screen, giving movement and speech to objects. The New York Times praised ''Just Grandma and Me'' for its interactive "distractions" alongside the story text and illustrations. Technology & Learning opined, "the developers seem to have delighted in creating imaginative events". The Seattle Times said Just Grandma and Me was "full of discovery". SuperKids felt The Tortoise and the Hare had a "captivating variety of exploration opportunities for young minds". Wired thought the peripheral elements were "cleverly" designed to be "playful", "imaginative", and "sometimes humorous". Children's Tech Review wrote that the series combined full color animation with a "crisp, responsive design" that "stood out from the rest". Tampa Bay Times reported their child testers willingly forwent Beavis, Butt-Head and WWF Wrestling to play the program, arguing the series' secret ingredient was "creativity". Entertainment Weekly praised ''Arthur's Birthday'' for its "inventive ending" and "hilarious hidden secrets". PC Mag called the series "charming", "delightful", "engaging", and "entertaining". Parent's Choice wrote "the thought and creativity that was put into the interactivity in ''Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight'' is largely unmatched in any other interactive book." The Seattle Times wrote that the game's simplicity is a draw, as they lack "whizzy technology or tortured attempts to be interactive". The Educational Technology Handbook liked that the series "permit[s] user control over pace, sequencing, and help". Family PC noted their success was due to "let[ting] kids explore and find a cause-and-effect relationship between clicking the mouse and having something happen on the screen." All Game deemed Berenstain Bears in the Dark a "useful addition to any child's library of computer games". Game Developer Magazine felt the series "flunks out", in versatility as players are unable to "abort an animation" despite some of them being quite long. Jim Shatz-Akin at MacUser suggested, "they're not as interactive as they could be...The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight has long animations during which all a kid can do is sit and watch".Graphics and animation; music and sound
The series has been praised for its graphics and animation. ''CD-ROMs Rated'' by Les Kranz praised the graphics of ''Little Monster at School'' Compute! deemed Living Books a "new style of storytelling that is just a hop away from a fully interactive cartoon"; the magazine praised the animation sequences as "topnotch" and "approach ngcartoon quality, as well as the character-adding facial expressions". Tampa Bay Times noted the animations have the quality of Saturday-morning cartoon, Saturday morning cartoons. Meanwhile, The New York Times Guide to the Best Children's Videos thought the characters in Arthur's Computer Adventure were "stiff" compared to those in the TV show. Sally Fennema-Jansen's paper, ''Essential tools of the trade'' notes programs like Living Books and the ''Early Learning House'' offer a variety of visual effects which are essential in engaging students at the computer. ''CD-ROMs Rated'' wrote that children would be disappointed by other interactive storybooks like ''Mud Puddle'' and ''The Paper Bag Princess'' due to them lacking ''Living Book''Adaption of books
The series has been praised for its adaption of books. Tampa Bay Times felt that ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' "demonstrates that even a timeworn tale can be revived for youthful audiences with multimedia dazzle". Courant felt that the success of its games was aided by the "opportunities for animation and fun" within their source material. ''Publishers Weekly'', in a review of ''Dr. Seuss' ABC'', stated that, "the producers' fondness for Dr. Seuss and their fidelity to his sense of refined silliness spill into every sequence." On the other hand, reviewing two Dr. Seuss titles The Washington Post criticised Living Books for "re-purposing content" and "exploiting existing media franchises", adding that "nearly all of the additions mangle or simply ignore the Seuss sensibility". PC Mag felt Living Books' ''Arthur's Birthday'' "captured all the charm of the original". The Photographic Image in Digital Culture thought Living Books was a "successful reworking of children's literature". ''Business Standard'' felt Green Eggs and Ham was "faithful to the original" while MacWorld felt it offered a "charming, lighthearted adaptation". The Educational Technology Handbook praised the series' use of quality literature. MetzoMagic thought Green Eggs and Ham would be "irresistible for Dr Seuss devotees". SuperKids felt Green Eggs and Ham was a "very good program, based on an excellent story". Allgame felt Arthur's Reading Race was "sure to delight children who enjoy the adventures of Arthur in books or on TV". Macworld suggested that Arthur's Reading Race's success was "a testament to Arthur's entertainment value". Complex felt the games allowed kids to "live out their personal ''The Pagemaster, Pagemaster'' fantasies" Superkids thought ''Tortoise and the Hare'' "does the old story justice". Baltimore Sun liked that Living Books chose to adapt a "well-written story with a morale". The Seattle Times noted the series' short playtime, though noted it replay value due to children liking to revisit favourite books. SuperKids also noted the series' replayability, as their kid reviewers engaged with the story even if they had read it before. Conversely, ''The Daily Gazette'' warned that ''Arthur's Computer Adventure'' wouldn't hold kids' attention for long. Mac Observer described the series as "cognitive dissonance free" as opposed to other interactive storybooks where the "action either contradicts the story or adds nothing to the narrative being employed". On the other hand, Len Unsworth's paper "Reframing research and literacy pedagogy relating to CD narratives" noted the dissonance between text and action; in ''Stellaluna'' "They perched in silence for a long time" is followed with incongruous activity and noise instead of a reflective pause; Unsworth's writes that the actions are "gratuitous intrusions into the story and which do not appear in the book version in any form". Simson L. Garfinkel and Beth Rosenberg felt that the added dialogue supplementing the book's text was sometimes "out of character". Of ''The Tortoise and the Hare'', Creighton University said, "By comparison with the exciting interactive program, the book is only okay". Many critics wrote about the series as a reading tool compared to the physical book. The New York Times questioned the addition of the "original "dead" book" with the CD-ROM adaption, suggesting "most children never get around to opening the real book". Hartford Courant opined "[it] just isn't as good as sitting on the sofa with your child on your lap and a stack of books next to you". Salon suggested the series had a portability problem when compared to traditional books, and that they didn't work as "sleeper-friendly software". Donald R Roberts, chairman of Stanford University Department of Communication felt there were important "social dimensions" involved in the parent-child reading process that couldn't be replicated through a digital book, including contact and a sense of security. World Village felt Living Books "handsomely realized the story" of The Berenstain Bears: In the Dark. German site Rhein-zeitung.de felt the "combination of CD and book has the best conditions to become a bestseller". ''PC Mag'' noted that the series offers a narrator that can read the same page over again "without complaint".Humour, writing, and ease of use
Many critics praised the series' humour and wit. The Independent thought the best titles were "amusing" with funny storylines. Compute! deemed Ruff's Bone "the funniest Living Book so far". The Children's Trust lamented that ''Living Books'' wasn't aimed at an older audience, but wrote that the storybooks were sufficient for their patients due to being "amusing". PC Mag thought Living Books pack enough humor and tickle adults as they entertain children". Compute! conceded that even adults would be "affected by its delightful story and sharp sense of wit." Len Unsworth's paper "Reframing research and literacy pedagogy relating to CD narratives" writes that ''Stellaluna'' was a "very significantly change" from the "somewhat serious tone" of the book due to an "almost a slapstick approach to frivolous humour". Baltimore Sun felt the activities were the "right blend of humor and purpose". ''MacWorld'' deemed ''Arthur's Reading Games'' an "amusing, interactive product". Courant felt that while the developer had "the formula figured out". Upon previewing the second title in the series, Computer Gaming World wrote that ''Just Grandma and Me'' was "not just a creative fluke", and felt Living Books "may have the wit and imagination to keep the magic in the series indefinitely". Tes.com thought of Just Grandma and Me, "There's so much charm that parents, and teachers, will enjoy it too." ''World Village'' thought ''Arthur's Reading Race'' was "very well written". The Baltimore Sun felt the games "vary dramatically in quality" while The Independent agreed that the books' quality fluctuates. Superkids felt Arthur's Computer Adventure was "not the strongest entry in the Living Books product line". S''uperKids'' wrote that Arthur's Computer Adventure wasn't the strongest entry in the Living Books product line. Many reviewers praised the series for its ease of use. Compute! noted "it's a cinch for even very young children to run the program without adult assistance". The Spokesman Review described the series as "Broderbund's software version of training wheels." Simson L. Garfinkel and Beth Rosenberg found that the CD-ROMs played better on Macs than on PCs. New Straits Times felt their "simple and interactive interface" gave Living Books and "edge" over its competitors. Engadget deemed it "the young-kid equivalent of Cyan's revolutionary ''Race and gender, and in translation
''MacUser'' felt that Living Books and Edmark's ''Early Learning House'' overcame the issue of exclusively Caucasian characters in younger children's programs through the use of animal and friendly monster protagonists. The New York Times Guide to the Best Children's Videos felt the use of a female role model in Sheila Rae, The Brave was "excellent". ''Allgame'' thought Sheila Rae was an "excellent program for young girls and boys". One study of ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' found that some of its incidental hot spots included stereotypical depictions of male and female behaviours. ''MacAddict'' criticised the ''Little Ark Interactive'' title Daniel in the Lions’ Den for teaching stereotypes; the titular protagonist Daniel is thrown into the lions’ den by three "not-so-wise" men who are characterised as fat, hunchbacked, and with darker skin respectively, together acting like the The Three Stooges, Three Stooges. In 1994, ''Aktueller Software Markt'' praised two entries in the series and concluded the review by begging for a German translation of the programs. After a local version was launched in 1998–9, German site Feibel noted that "the translation was done by people who have no idea about the German language", adding that "particularly disturbing is the voice of the grandmother, who has an American accent"; the site argued that "the accent alienates the text" and "significantly reduced the quality of the story". Of the international dubs, reviewer Roger Frost commented "It's interesting that several teams of experts worked on these, just to 'dub' them so that lip movements matched the new dialogue". ''The Age'' wrote that, the "ongoing popularity of adventure games" including the ''Carmen Sandiego'' series, ''Flowers of Crystal'' and ''Dragonworld (video game), Dragonworld,'' showed promise that Living Books would "become very popular in Australian classrooms"Re-releases and Little Ark Interactive
The Seattle Times though felt the additions in the Version 2.0 re-releases wouldn't be enough to convince customers to re-purchase the program. Of the Wanderful re-releases, Engadget questioning whether the storybooks would hold up in the current market though noted the "effort and care that went into their original versions". Children's Technology Review wrote of Wanderful's Ruff's Bone app, "[it's] a good book meets solid interactive design, in this updated iPad edition of the classic Living Book". CNBC deemed the dynamic language function in the Wanderful re-releases a "stunningly simple and powerful feature unlike anything found in other interactive storybooks or eBooks". Mac Observer felt the Wanderful upgrade had "well researched curriculua and activities aligned with the Common Core State Standards Initiative". Children's Tech Review noted that on the iPad screen, the graphics look "bitmapped" and "fuzzy" as if they have been "directly ported", though noted this gives the programs a "retro" look; they praised the hotspots as "still-funny-after-all-these-years" and the sound as having not "faded a bit". The site praised the modern multi-touch environment that "enhance[s] a child's feeling of control". They noted that while ''Living Books'' still had its "magic", "unlike the '90s, [children] have many more choices".Recommendations and scores
Many reviewers directly recommended their audience to purchase Living Books. ''Technology & Learning'' wrote in the Weakness section of their review, "it is hard to find fault with a program that is as well thought out and entertaining as Just Grandma and Me". The Seattle Times wrote that Just Grandma and Me is "the best program I've seen for this age group". ''Publishers Weekly'', in a review of ''Dr. Seuss' ABC'', called that title "one of the best children's CD-ROMs to date. Compute thought Living Books was a "rare piece of software that doesn't suffer at least a minor flaw or two". World Village deemed Arthur's Reading Race a "must-have program". PC Mag felt Ruff's Bone was the "best Living Books yet". MacUser opined "you can't go wrong" with Living Books or Humungous games. AllGame thought Stellaluna was "very entertaining and is sure to be a hit with children". PC Mag wrote that Broderbund had "scored a major hit" with Living Books. SuperKids' review of ''Green Eggs and Ham'' wrote that they "highly recommend the program for any child capable of grasping the story". Just Adventure "heartily recommended" Arthur's Computer Adventure for any "parents who wants to enjoy computer time with their children". Of The Tortoise and the Hare, All Game thought children of all ages would "enjoy this story a great deal". Reviewer Roger Frost felt Living Books, along with Sesame Street titles, had "enough plus points to make them powerfully magnetic". Daily Egyptian thought the titles were "standouts" while Deseret News called them "excellent". ''Parent's Choice'' said ''Arthur's Birthday'' was "one of the best ways you can spend 5 bucks for your child." The series has received consistently high review scores. ''Arthur's Teacher Trouble'', ''The Tortoise and the Hare'', ''Ruff's Bone'', and ''Little Monster at School'' all received a very high score of over 90.00 in ''CD-ROMs Rated''. MacUser's December 1994 issue contained reviews on all 8 titles released at that point and scored each a 4 or 4.5 out of 5.''All Game Guide, All Game'' gave Arthur's reading race 4.5 stars out of 5. ''Just Adventure'' gave ''Arthur's Computer Adventure'' a top rating of A ''while All Game'' gave it 4/5 stars.Awards
, - ! scope="row" , 1992–1997 , ''Just Grandma and Me'' , Winner of over 16 awards since its release in 1992. , , - ! scope="row" , 1993–1997 , ''Arthur's Teacher Trouble'' , Winner of 15 awards since its release in 1993–1997 , , - ! scope="row" , 1993 , ''Living Books'' , PC Magazine Award of Technical Excellence , , - ! scope="row" , 1993 , ''Living Books'' , Popular Science Magazine Award of Technical Excellence , , - ! scope="row" , 1993 , ''Living Books'' , ''PC Entertainment Magazine'' Special Achievement in Design Excellence , , - ! scope="row" , 1994 , ''New Kid on the Block'' , National Educational Film and Video Silver Apple Award , , - ! scope="row" , 1994 , ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' , Macworld Award for Best Entertainment CD in the Children/Young Adult's Category , , - ! scope="row" , 1994 , ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' , NewMedia Magazine's Invision Multimedia Award for Gold in the Games, Edutainment Category , , - ! scope="row" , 1994 , ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' , Macworld rated as "One of the Year's Top 10 CD-ROMS" , , - ! scope="row" , 1994 , ''Ruff's Bone'' , Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Cybermania Award for Outstanding Special Achievement , , - ! scope="row" , 1994 , ''Ruff's Bone'' , Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Cybermania Award for Educational Award: Interactive Books , , - ! scope="row" , 1994 , ''Living Books'' , ''Macworld'' World-Class Award , , - ! scope="row" , 1994–1995 , ''Living Books'' , ''Software Publishers Association'' Technology and Learning Next in Series Award , , - ! scope="row" , 1995 , ''Arthur's Birthday'' , National Educational Media Network's Gold Apple Award. , , - ! scope="row" , 1995 , ''Harry and the Haunted House'' , NewMedia Magazine's Bronze Invision Award for Technical/Creative Excellence, Best Audio/Soundtrack , , - ! scope="row" , 1995 , ''Harry and the Haunted House'' , National Educational Media Network's Bronze Apple Award , , - ! scope="row" , 1995 , ''Living Books'' , Macworld rated as "One of the Year's Top 10 CD-ROMs" , , - ! scope="row" , 1995 , ''Living Books'' , ''Dr. Toy'' 100 Best Children's Products , , - ! scope="row" , 1995 , ''Living Books'' , ''The Computer Museum Guide to the Best Software'' Best Software for Kids , , - ! scope="row" , 1995 , ''Living Books'' , ''Multimedia World'' Readers' Choice Award , , - ! scope="row" , 1996 , ''Sheila Rae the Brave'' , MacWorld listed as a runner-up to "One of the Year's Top 10 CD-ROMS". , , - ! scope="row" , 1997–98 , ''Arthur's Reading Race'' , Technology & Learning's Home Learning Software Award , , - ! scope="row" , 1998 , Arthur's Computer Adventure , Newsweek , Recommendation , - ! scope="row" , 2005 , ''Living Books'' , Technology & Learning's Awards of Excellence – Readers' Choice Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2006 , ''Dr. Seuss's ABC'' , Technology & Learning's Award of Excellence , , - ! scope="row" , 2007 , ''Sheila Rae, the Brave'' , Technology & Learning's Award of Excellence , , - ! scope="row" , 2008 , ''Living Books'' , ''Home PC'' Editor's Choice 100 Top Products , , - ! scope="row" , 2009 , ''Living Books'' , ''National Parenting Center'' Seal of Approval , , - ! scope="row" , 2010 , Harry and the Haunted House , Children's Technology Review Editor's Choice Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2011 , Arthur's Teacher Trouble , Children's Technology Review Editor's Choice Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2012 , Wanderful's Ruff's Bone , Children's Technology Review Editor's Choice Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2013 , Arthur's Birthday , Parents Choice Awards Parents' Choice Gold Honor Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2013 , Wanderful's Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight , Parents Choice Awards Parents' Choice Gold Honor Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2013 , Wanderful's Berenstain Bears In The Dark , Parents Choice Awards Parents' Choice Gold Honor Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2013 , Wanderful's The Tortoise and the Hare , Parents Choice Awards Parents' Choice Gold Honor Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2013 , Arthur's Teacher Trouble , Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2013 , Harry and the Haunted House , Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2013 , Ruff's Bone , Parent's Choice Recommended , , - ! scope="row" , 2013 , Wanderful Storybooks Sampler , Parents' Choice Approved , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , The Berenstain Bears In The Dark , The Children's eBook Award for Best Bedtime App – Gold , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , The Berenstain Bears In The Dark , The Children's eBook Award for Best Special Needs Autism App – Gold , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , The New Kid on the Block , The Children's eBook Award for Best Special Education App – Silver , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , Little Monster At School , The Children's eBook Award for Best Special Education App – Bronze , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , Harry and the Haunted House , The Children's eBook Award for Best Adventure App – Silver , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , Arthur's Birthday , The Children's eBook Award for Best Birthday App – Bronze , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , Arthur's Teacher Trouble , The Children's eBook Award for Best Early Reader App – Gold , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , The Tortoise and the Hare , The Children's eBook Award for Best Early Reader App – Bronze , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , Little Ark Interactive's The Story of Creation. , The Children's eBook Award for Best Early Learner app – Silver , , - ! scope="row" , 2015 , Wanderful Interactive Storybooks, Wanderful , Mom's Choice Gold Award , , -Little Ark Interactive awards
, - ! scope="row" , 2014 , ''The Story of Creation'' , Children's Technology Review's Editor's Choice Award , , - ! scope="row" , 2014 , ''Daniel in the Lion's Den'' , Children's Technology Review's Editor's Choice Award , , -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. The plots are faithful to their respective books. The games are generally adaptions of books from popular children's franchises such as Arthur (TV series), Arthur,Titles in the series
Little Ark Interactive titles
References
External links
* Archive