Promoted as an educational coloring book, We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kid’s Book of Freedom fails the grade.
How Do You Inspire Your Child or Teenager to Read?
My 11-year-old nephew is reading War and Peace. How did that happen? It all has to do with his parents and the way they inspired him from an early age.
Storytime Goes Digital: Assessing the Children’s E-Book and App Market at TOC Bologna
O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair focused on apps vs. e-books, legacy publishers vs. start-ups, and adapting to this digital world. By Sophie Rochester The children’s market is a huge opportunity within the digital publishing arena, but for the first time, computer and tech publishing giant O’Reilly Media took it’s “Tools of Change” conference on …
Could a Daily Children’s Newspaper Succeed in the US?
By Edward Nawotka As discussed in today’s lead story, Play Bac’s daily newspapers for children remain very popular. The model has proven so successful, that Play Bac has licensed the model to publishers in Hong Kong and the Middle East. In the UK, there’s First News — a weekly pring newspaper — but there is nothing similar in the US. …
With 150,000 Daily Print Subscribers, France’s Children’s Newspapers Remain Popular Despite “Digital Distractions”
By Olivia Snaije At least French kids are reading newspapers. There is always a business model that works against the odds. France’s book publisher Play Bac presse, which also publishes three newspapers for children, is simultaneously celebrating its 25th anniversary, and its founding paper, Mon Quotidien’s (My Daily) 15th birthday. At a time when newspapers worldwide are struggling, and in …
US Children’s Publishing Embraces Digital Changes
By Helen Gregg On Tuesday, December 7, Publisher’s Weekly and Digital Book World hosted an online seminar (or webinar) called “Children’s Publishing in the Digital Age.” Moderated by PW’s Co-Editorial Director Jim Milliot, speakers included Susan Katz, president and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, Rick Richter, founder of Ruckus Media, and Kate Wilson, founder of UK-based Nosy Crow. Each …
New Zealand’s Kiwa Media Pioneers Multi-lingual, Multi-media (and Maori) E-books for Children
By Edward Nawotka AUCKLAND: Looking for an enhanced e-book that you can read in English, Spanish, Japanese, Italian Chinese or . . . Maori? Kiwa Media, a software developer in Auckland, New Zealand has has what you need. Throughout 2010, Kiwa Media has launched some fifteen enhanced e-books for children -– dubbed QBooks –- that function like typical illustrated e-books, …
How Young is Too Young to Publish?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story looks at the controversy surrounding a bogus 23-book-deal struck with a six-year-old boy. On the face of it, it is simply absurd to think that a publisher would make such a deal, let alone with someone so very young. When I was five, I wrote a “book” called The Cat That Could Fly — …
Is Having Children an Unexpected Path to Publishing Success?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story describes the success Mark Garcia-Prats’ mother found as an author in the midst of raising ten sons. While this story may seem extraordinary, it’s not unusual to find that authors have found the focus a child brings to a household is helpful to their writing. Think of Toni Morrison who forced herself to wake …
Would You Use Ripple Reader with Your Kids?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story discusses the Ripple Reader, an e-book reader designed so parents can record themselves reading children’s picture books. As the father of a two-and-a-half year old, I have expressed my own reservations about reading e-books to children in the past. But something like this, particularly if I could get my daughter to record herself reading, interests …