JibJab’s App Lets Your Child Star in Their Own E-book

In Children's, What's the Buzz by Dennis Abrams

By Dennis Abrams

JibJab’s animated online e-cards have been sent more than 800 million times. Now the company is using the same personalization technology that made their “Starring You” e-cards so popular to enter the world of children’s books on their own terms.

JibJab Jr. Children’s Starring You app launched last week in the Apple iTunes App Store. The app allows you to create children’s books using photos of your child (or family member, friend or even pet) either taken with the built-in camera on the iPad built-in camera or imported to the device. You can pick names, and even match the skin complexion of your new avatar to that of your own. A few simple swipes turns them into the lead characters in an e-book.

The personalized stories are almost guaranteed to hold a child’s interest, after all,what kid doesn’t want to be the hero or heroine in a book? The download is free, and a one-book-a-month subscription is $3.99, with additional books running $3.99 each.

“We see a huge opportunity to disrupt children’s publishing and reinvent storytelling with new devices,” JibJab co-founder Gregg Spiridellis told USA Today.

It might just be the understatement of the year.

About the Author

Dennis Abrams

Dennis Abrams is a contributing editor for Publishing Perspectives, responsible for news, children's publishing and media. He's also a restaurant critic, literary blogger, and the author of "The Play's The Thing," a complete YA guide to the plays of William Shakespeare published by Pentian, as well as more than 30 YA biographies and histories for Chelsea House publishers.