App Award: Family Choice Award and Interview about Book Apps

Congratulations to our reviewer and author Valerie Harmon, and Illustrator Carol Stevens, for winning the Family Choice Award for their 10 book apps.

Book App Interview:

What are book apps?

Book apps are versions of books, in our case, our children's books, that can be read on devices (iPads, Kindles, etc).

How are book apps different than regular books?

While we love reading from paper books, book apps present a new and interactive way to read. There are many types of book apps out there, but ours come with sound effects, animations, a narration option--the app platform is incredible and adds to childhood interest in literacy. With busy parents, book apps that read to children can help increase the length of storytime. And because they're digital, a whole library can be carried on one device.

How do you make a book app?

Typically authors must hire a coder to turn their book into an app. Stevens, however, was able to use Adobe In Design to make the apps herself. Harmon happened to be a voice-over actress, as well as author, so she read the narrations herself. We searched and bought the music and sound effects online. It was a tremendous learning process, but by the fifth book, we got the pattern down.

SPECIAL OFFER:

As a special offer to our blog readers, Harmon and Stevens have made one of their book apps FREE!

Chipmunk Wants to Be a Bear Book App--FREE

The Quest:
Chipmunk is so afraid of everything that he hates to leave his tree house! When he notices a grizzly bear who doesn't seem scared of anything, Chipmunk begins a quest that reveals him to be braver than he thinks. This app storyline demonstrates conquering fears of all kinds.

App Details:
Tapping or swiping the stars can drop an acorn on Bear's nose, catch Chipmunk riding on a fish, or send a hawk soaring in the sky, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including a laughing raccoon, gurgling stream or even a grumbling bear. This app teaches children to work hard toward a goal, no matter what, with 61 animations, 28 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration.

Download the app HERE if you have an iPad.

Thanks and Congratulations Valerie Harmon and Carol Stevens!

~The Children's Illustrated eBook Review

Published today! WantsToBe Book 7: The Crab Who Wanted To Be A Dolphin

My seventh children's picture book in the WantsToBe series, The Crab Who Wanted To Be A Dolphin is now available on Amazon!

Book Summary: Everyone annoys Crab! Lonely and friendless (because she's cranky), she decides she needs to become a dolphin to solve her problems. Struggling on this quest, she discovers that finding friends requires changes on the inside, not the outside. As she experiences gratitude, and the friendship that follows, she unexpectedly transforms into a mixture of her old self and a new self. Not only an educational story encouraging gratitude, this tale is also a metaphor for how we all transform after accomplishing difficult things. 

In honor of this exciting news, all six published books in this series are FREE till midnight tonight (the full color eBook versions are free, the full color paperback versions are $6.29). Click on the cover of the book for the link to Amazon (note that they've each reached best seller in category and are rated 4.7-5.0 stars). 
ENJOY!
~Valerie Harmon
PS. If you like the book, I'd welcome your feedback and review on Amazon! Thank you!

The Peacock Who Wanted To Be A Pig

The T-Rex Who Wanted To Be A Longneck

The Alligator Who Wanted To Be A Dog

The Chipmunk Who Wanted To Be A Bear 

The Elephant Who Wanted To Be A Bee

The Snake Who Wanted To Be A Horse

Books Turned Into Apps

We have been working for months on turning our Kindle books into animated apps for iPad using InDesign instead of actual coding. And it worked! Not only have our beta testers expressed words like "Wow!" "Awesome" and "I don't want to say anything I just want to play with it," we also just got all six approved by the App Store℠! This is the image we used to announce it on Facebook today:

I know. Six apps at once? Why?

We wanted to put two up at once so that people who like one can have another one handy (it's a philosophy based on my own book app buying--when my children find a favorite book app and we read and play with it over and over, I reach a point where I want another one immediately to keep me sane--I mean to keep bedtime from going stale).

Plus we wanted one app to be free so people can make sure they like our story and style before paying money for it.  

But this two app plan was foiled because I work more slowly on the dramatized narration and choosing sound effects and music than my illustrator, Carol Stevens, works at animating our books. She found it animating the characters so fun that she just kept working on the next one. And the next one. She calls herself obsessed, but I call her amazing! Finally, she'd animated all six books right around the time I finished recording all the narrations and picking out and buying part of the sound effects and music. With her projects done for the moment, Stevens picked up the slack and finished the sound effects and music, as well as setting my narration to music! I love partnering with Stevens!

So here we are with SIX apps! And we're working on the seventh book and app at the same time. Yep, we are having some crazy fun (and you can see why I'm behind in my book reviewing, sorry! More to come soon!).

Here is a link to the FREE app, The Chipmunk Wants To Be A Bear.

Isn't it a cute icon? Stevens is so talented!

The Chipmunk Wants To Be A Bear app teaches children to work hard toward a goal no matter what, with 61 animations, 28 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Add to your cart and teach children that accomplishing difficult things changes us into something more, and perseverance is worth it!

App Details: Tapping or swiping the stars can drop an acorn on Bear’s nose, catch Chipmunk riding on a fish, or send a hawk soaring in the sky, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including a laughing raccoon, gurgling stream or even a grumbling bear.

The other five apps sell for $2.99, just like the Kindle book version, and we even have our newest book, The T-Rex Who Wanted To Be A Long Neck (which was published just a month ago), in app form--with steam coming out of the angry T-Rex nose and a volcano that explodes in the background. Lovely stuff!!

The T-Rex Wants To Be A Long Neck

App Details: 70 animations, 35 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can knock down a tree with T-Rex's tail, send a pterodactyl soaring in the sky, hatch a baby dinosaur egg, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including a volcano erupting, T-Rex roaring or even the boom from Long Neck whipping his tail.

The Alligator Wants To Be A Dog

App Details: 63 animations, 34 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can throw Alligator out of the back of a truck, start a frog leaping, send a rabbit hopping, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including a noisy swamp, croaking frog or even a hissing alligator.

The Peacock Wants To Be A Pig

App Details: 68 animations, 35 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can launch Peacock into a mudhole, help him swallow an apple core, balance on a ball, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including cows mooing or even Pig slurping from a trough.

The Elephant Wants To Be A Bee

App Details: 73 animations, 36 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can start a hive of bees swarming, cause a zebra to rear, send a meerkat scampering away, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including a trumpeting elephant, a tree crashing to the ground or even a barking meerkat.

The Snake Wants To Be A Horse

App Details: 71 animations, 35 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration. Tapping or swiping the stars can tie Snake's tongue in a knot, send a herd of horses galloping, put band aids on Snake, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including galloping hooves, horses neighing or even snakes laughing.

If you enjoyed these apps, would you let us know? We'd love to hear your response and we'd appreciate your reviews in the Store. 

Thanks!!

~Valerie Harmon

We are blogged: by Theo Lightfoot

Thanks to Theo Lightfoot for spotlighting the Wants To Be book children's eBook series. He says, 

"This children’s ebook series teaches kids the valuable lesson that they can be anything they want to be, no matter how unlikely it first appears."

and...

"The point is, no matter how ridiculous someone’s goal seems, don’t disparage it. The more unlikely it is, the more the person will work to make it happen. And I think that’s the idea we want our kids to learn from these books."

Great review!

~Valerie Harmon

WantsToBe featured on Mrs. Mommy Booknerd Book Reviews & More

I just stumbled on this blogpost of my WantsToBe children's picture eBook series. It was written in July, but I didn't notice that it was up until now! Ha ha. Feels super though, to have someone blog about my books. And to like them!

Mrs. Mommy Booknerd says, "I love these stories about the unlikely interaction between the animals and the sheer determination to make a change!  The stories are original and the pictures are colorful and fun!  My kids and I loved to see how each book would end and what the animals would change into!"

Thanks Mommy Booknerd! I'm glad you and your kids enjoyed our books!

~Valerie Harmon

Our fourth Best Seller!

 Announcing our fourth book, The Peacock Who Wanted To Be A Pig, just hit #1 Best Seller in Category on Amazon yesterday. So....we get to change the cover from this...

To this.....

See the shiny gold seal? Yep! We now have four published books in the WantsToBe series, and all four of them have hit #1 Best Seller in Category. Have you read them yet? Here are the first three in the series:

The Snake Who Wanted To Be A Horse

The Elephant Who Wanted To Be A Bee

The Alligator Who Wanted To Be A Dog

A Real Allidog?

This weekend (starting tomorrow June 7 through Monday June 10th) my third Kindle book, The Alligator Who Wanted To Be A Dog is free on Amazon. In honor of the promotion, I give you this real life Allidog:

Alright, it's only partially real. But isn't it such a cute costume?

This one is a little less cute, but VERY eye-catching:

Yes, that's a real dog, and a life-like Alligator costume. I can't stop laughing at the long-suffering expression on the dog's face. That costume is definitely for the humans!

Enjoy the free e-book, if you don't have a copy of The Alligator Who Wanted To Be A Dog yet!

~Valerie Harmon

Meme and Fan Photo: The Dachshund Who Wanted To Be A Doberman

Dog: "They told me I could be anything, so I became a Doberman"

A friend of mine, S R., posted this photo on my WantsToBe  Facebook page  because it reminded her of my books. LOL! If Alligator (the main character in my latest book The Alligator Who Wanted To Be A Dog, had met this dog first, the ending might be more unusual than it is now. Allidog on stilts?



Credits: I believe this photo (without the meme) comes from this website.

Fan Photo: The Dog Who Wanted To Be A Fish

A Fog? A Dish? No, A Seal!

I was sent this photo by Susie R. since this meme reminded her of my books. I could title it, The Dog Who Wanted To Be A Fish! Makes me want to go Awwww.

But naming its mashup Dog-Fish would be hard. Fog? Dish? Nope. It's already a Seal. Well, I won't be writing a book with the mashup already done by nature (sorry for those of you who've suggested a Platypus), but I do enjoy the meme.


The original photograph came from National Geographic, but I don't have a link to the original meme.

Fan Photo: The Horse Who Wanted To Be A Shark

What could I call it? A Shorse? A Hark? 

The absurd photo above was sent to me as another book suggestion: The Horse Who Wanted To Be A Shark. Every time I look at it, I have to laugh. 

I don't know the source, and Google Images only recognized it as a horse. So..to the person who played with Photoshop, "Thank you for the laughs."

And thank you Ken Craig for the "suggestion."