February 18, 2010

KBN introduces a new, very different computer-based media experience. What should we call it?

      First came the Kindle. Then a few weeks ago it was the iPad.
      Now, finally, KBN is pleased to announce the introduction of a new, very different media experience featuring the most advanced design and user technology yet. Our new invention is far more performance-driven, requires users to buy no new hardware, and actually lets people read whole books, without squinting, up big on the largest computer monitors – or even projected theater-size on your family room wall.

      Just imagine. Now your whole family can sit down together in the family room and, instead of watching old Lassie reruns and reality cooking shows on TV, you can read a whole book together up on the wall of your new state-of-the-art family reading center.
      We need a name for this new media experience, so what should we call it?
      What do you think? Bookcasting™ maybe.
      After you say the word only a few hundred times you actually start to get used to it.
      Try it again. Bookcasting.
     This week we are introducing the first authentic bookcasting to the world on the KBN website, so sit back with some popcorn and get ready to enjoy reading a good book like never before.
      Just select any KBN picture book, for example, click on the flashbook option,  and start reading.
      Tired of all the same old arguments between Republicans and Democrats? Want to see some solid new ideas for our political future? Consider the thoughtful options you will find in the recent KBN sociopolitical study What If Dogs Ran The World?




      Or are you possibly in the mood for something lighter? Then you might enjoy Possibly The 100 Worst Jokes Of All Time.
      Or would you prefer something more educational? Then you'll want to read the documentary The Tooth Fairy Goes Off To School. 
      See? The possibilities are almost endless. Now you understand why more and more kids, parents, teachers, politicians, pundits and phrenologists are turning to KBN. 
      Bookcasting.
      It's starting here and it's starting now.

February 13, 2010

KBN welcomes Linda Lee. And the fun of reading books you sometimes just have to write yourself.

This week we are pleased to welcome Linda Lee as a contributing KBN author/illustrator.
        An extraordinary artist living in Amsterdam, her work can be  charmingly innocent one moment – as in her new book for KBN for which the story was lost, apparently, because her dog ate it – and sharply witty and complex the next as in her sophisticated visual commentaries appearing in the euro design magazine DZone. 
        Linda Lee has illustrated literally hundreds of picture books, educational books, magazines, games, puzzles, and much more. A visit to her website at www.lindalee.nl offers a delightful exploration of the visually unexpected.  
         Interactive reception concepts are also an important focus of the artist. Recently, for example, she developed a series of nursery paintings which children can not only observe, but touch and feel as well. Now, with The Metal Detector, she brings KBN readers a fresh interactive children’s story.
        Like a silent movie, The Metal Detector can be read perfectly well without text. But with the help of limited metatext the work also invites young readers  to tell the story they observe in the cinematic flow of images in words, which of course are their own words. Children are encouraged, further, to inscribe the story they create directly into the book, which becomes a unique interactive work actually written by its readers.

Parents will treasure this book. And teachers are provided with more classroom suggestions in our KBN Teacher Talk review.