From the press release:   One of the stories of the 49th Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the new Bologna Ragazzi Digital Award. With over 250 entries from every continent , this award for excellence in digital story publishing is recognition from the world’s largest children’s publishing fair  that new digital formats have now joined their print-based counterparts for the BolognaRagazzi award. It also reflects how reading habits are changing. Warren Buckleitner chair of the judge's panel says “Since the days of first computer, we’ve known that interactive media has potential for bringing...

That's the title of an article by Peter Meyers on his blog A New Kind of Book. The iPad can display almost anything an author imagines. But are we shortchanging readers by overstuffing our apps? Isn’t it ironic how a device whose design embodies minimalism often gets used to show off overwhelming amounts of media? Recently I’ve begun looking for what might be called minimalist apps—those whose contents match the iPad’s spare design. My search gained new impetus thanks to Children’s Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling, which studies an art form that, like the iPad, has attracted creators interested in mixing media....

From Publishers Weekly:   After more than 18 months of development, Scholastic has begun beta tests for Storia, its proprietary e-book platform for selling and distributing its trade titles as well as digital editions of titles from other children’s houses. The beta test features 1,300 titles with the vast majority published by Scholastic; Deborah Forte, executive v-p and president of Scholastic Media, said she expects Storia to have about 2,000 titles when it makes its official debut in the fall. Scholastic is promoting Storia to teachers and parents and has designed the app to appeal to...

AppCraver is carrying a press release from app publisher Nosy Crow, announcing that its Cinderella iOS appbook has won Digital Book World’s Publishing Innovation Award for Best Juvenile App: “The Cinderella story isn’t new, but Nosy Crow’s developers use the app platform in new ways to make this an entertaining experience with extremely high play value and a long engagement time,” said the Publishing Innovation Awards judges of the Juvenile App category. “Clever design decisions, excellent navigation, and enhanced content allow young readers to play in a very natural way with the story. Readers can...

We know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but what about by its spine? On the Scholastic “On Our Minds” blog, Jessica writes about the common misconception that kids won’t read books that are too lengthy. But she notices there is significant evidence that this is a misconception. Look at some of the titles being read by kids and teens.  Besides the Steve Jobs book weighing in at 656 pages, the smallest book in the Twilight series clocked in at just fewer than 500 pages.  The rest of them were bigger.  The...

I always like to help someone new get started, so I'm reprinting this email I got from Fumi Suzuki of Sanoen: My name is Fumi Suzuki, I am the community manager of SANOEN, a digital publishing company specializing in interactive children’s literature with an educational focus, based in Barcelona. We write stories for children and turn them into Apps and eBooks. Our first App for iPad and eBook for Kindle Amazon “Sarah little fairy and grandma” is on sale since December 20th. Narrative comes in five languages: English, Spanish, French, German and Catalan. Sarah, the little fairy: Grandma gets lost! Is the first of...

We’ve seen a number of different types of books turned into e-books, so why not coloring books? That seems to be Crayola’s philosophy. PaidContent reports the company is partnering with interactive storybook app publisher Ruckus Media to publish a series of coloring e-books for iOS and Android. Presumably they will work like its other iPad apps that let kids “color” with their fingers or a stylus. Sounds like fun, but hopefully any parents who use this will first make sure their kids know to use fingers, not crayons or permanent markers. (And when did Crayola start using that creepy-looking...

From the press release: Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Marshall Cavendish, one of the world’s leading educational and consumer book publishers and classroom digital solutions providers, today announced that Amazon has signed a deal to acquire over 450 titles of its US Children’s trade books business, Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books (MCCB). The list from Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books has been nominated for more than 150 industry awards and includes a diverse range of titles including “The Night Before Christmas” illustrated by Gennady Spirin, “Three Little Tamales” by Eric A. Kimmel, “Chalk” by Bill Thomson and “Yellow Star” by Jennifer Roy, as well...

The New York Times has a lengthy article discussing the relative immunity of children’s books to electronic replacement. Even the most ardent e-book fans insist on print for their children, it reports. There are a number of good reasons, including not wanting to expose expensive electronics to juvenile whims (and assorted substances), not wanting the shiny toy to distract from the literary experience, and wanting children to have the experience of physically manipulating the pages. “I know I’m a Luddite on this, but there’s something very personal about a book and not one of one thousand...

I received the following email from von Heijne: My name is Nils and I'm contacting you about the launch of uTales, set to revolutionize children's picture books globally. We're a new world of digital picture books for kids, created by a worldwide community of more than 1,000 professional authors and illustrators. uTales is a truly disruptive concept, and I thought it perhaps may be of interest for you and your readers? The uTales community brings parents and children unlimited access to an entire library of digital picture books - a library that just keeps growing and...

It’s now well known that Kindle Fire has fired up the tablet market. Kindle Fire can be used for color magazines, newspapers, movie, music, web browsing etc. However, Amazon seems also developing reading contents exclusively for Kindle FIre. As an example, Amazon is promoting Kindle Fire as a eBook reader for children. In fact Amazon is developing some childrens’ ebook specially designed for Kindle Fire. It’s not known what would be the format of the ebooks, and how those ebooks will be deliverd to Kindle Fire. It seems a new Kindle reading application for Kindle Fire is on it’s...

From the press release: Scholastic SCHL -2.27% , the global children's publishing, education and media company, today announced a partnership agreement with Sourcebooks, a leading independent publisher, to offer their children's titles through the Scholastic proprietary distribution channels as e-books on the new Scholastic e-reading application launching this fall. Under the agreement, Scholastic will carry bestselling frontlist and backlist children's titles published by Sourcebooks on the Scholastic e-reading app which is specially designed to captivate kids while helping them become better readers. Picture books, elementary series,...