Skyreader Media - Children's eBooks

Draw Along Pip

danlargo — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:23:16 +0000

The first interactive children’s ebook from international bestselling writer and illustrator Leslie McGuirk. Now with Skyreader’s Draw Along feature! With over 600,000 copies sold worldwide, Leslie McGuirk originally introduced the world to Pip the Penguin through a beloved series of board books.

“The adventures of Pip the Penguin are among the stand-out new board books” – Pittsburgh Post Gazette
“Electric bright colours give these undersized books a strong visual presence” – Publisher’s Weekly
“McGuirk has the knack for seeing through a child’s eyes” – The Tribune
Editor’s Choice with BABYTALK Magazine

Now, for the first time ever, Leslie brings Pip the Penguin to the the immersive and interactive world of the iPad.

Features include:

Skyreader’s new Draw Along feature! Your child completes each story page by drawing Pip and his friends
Explore each scene to discover interactive elements and funny surprises that kids will love and want to play over and over
Visuals that capture the simplicity and beauty of a child’s point of view

Discover the next generation of storytelling with Skyreader’s immersive and interactive children’s ebooks. Check out more titles at SkyreaderMedia.com.

Check Out our YouTube channel

Skyreader Media teams with A-list children’s author Leslie McGuirk on Pip the Penguin

danlargo — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:54:55 +0000

Exploding iPad and eBook sales create fertile ground for Skyreader’s ambition

Toronto – Ottawa, May 8, 2012 – Her books have been featured on The Martha Stewart show, Town & Country Magazine and People.com. Now best-selling children’s author Leslie McGuirk is teaming up with Skyreader Media Inc. to bring Pip the Penguin to the iPad featuring Skyreader’s new Draw-Along interactivity built on the company’s proprietary eBook authoring platform. Pip the Penguin has so far sold 600,000 copies in hard cover worldwide, and has been translated into Japanese, Swedish and French.

Like the iPad, eBook market share is exploding and represents a highly lucrative business opportunity for McGuirk and Toronto, Ontario-based Skyreader Media. Skyreader’s development team is based in Ottawa.

On April 24, 2012 Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple sold 27.2 million iPads in the first half of 2012 – more than any PC maker’s total sales during the period. Meanwhile, the most recent sales figures from The Association of American Publishers (AAP) state that the child / young adult eBook category saw an incredible 475 per cent increase, up from just $3.9 million to $22.6 million, in the space of 12 months.

“It is vital for an artist and writer to be inspired, and I love how Skyreader Media has turned a linear book into an immersive exploration for young readers,” said McGuirk. “The new draw-along technology that allows a child to use the iPad’s touch screen to draw characters and objects that pop to life with sound and movement transforms Pip the Penguin into a multimedia experience I couldn’t have imagined even a few years ago.”

“Pip the Penguin is a new chapter for Skyreader Media. We are attracting top authors like Leslie due to our unique ability to create true interactive experiences for creative authors to engage readers without boundaries. This is a game-changing approach to storytelling,” said Kevin Gillis, the company’s President and Chief Creative Officer.

Skyreader’s eBook version of Pip the Penguin is available now from Apple’s App Store http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/draw-along-pip/id521331189?ls=1&mt=8

Anyone can access several videos about Skyreader and the new app at http://www.youtube.com/user/SkyreaderMedia

About Skyreader™ Media

Skyreader™ Media is a developer and publisher of mobile eBook apps for the Apple® iPad® and other tablet devices. Skyreader’s™ exclusive content and proprietary technology positions it as a market leader in immersive and interactive eBooks for children of all ages. With access to over 5000 book titles and exclusive licenses for 1500 titles, Skyreader™ is enabling next generation storytelling for children and parents in all new and engaging ways.

Skyreader Contacts

Andrew Jackson

Skyreader Media Inc.

Phone: 613-882-6348

Email: ajackson@skyreadermedia.com

Paul Brent

Senior Communications Strategist

market2world communications inc.

Phone: 613-256-3939

Email: paul@market2world.com

Who is Pip?

danlargo — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:56:16 +0000

Introducing Pip the Penguin, the star character in the new interactive ebook for the iPad from Skyreader Media, Draw Along Pip, featuring new Draw Along technology.

Pip is Coming

danlargo — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:40:48 +0000

DRAW ALONG PIP, the first interactive children’s ebook from international bestselling writer and illustrator Leslie McGuirk is coming soon in May 2012.

With over 600,000 copies sold worldwide, Leslie McGuirk originally introduced the world to Pip the Penguin through a beloved series of board books to rave reviews:

“The adventures of Pip the Penguin are among the stand-out new board books” – Pittsburgh Post Gazette
“Electric bright colours give these undersized books a strong visual presence” – Publisher’s Weekly
“McGuirk has the knack for seeing through a child’s eyes” – The Tribune
Editor’s Choice with BABYTALK Magazine

Now, for the first time ever, Leslie is bringing Pip the Penguin to the immersive and interactive world of the iPad.

Check back often as we add new Pip graphics and follow us on Twitter @SkyreaderMedia

Skyreader Media among local Ottawa firms recently signing new agreements.

danlargo — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:45:12 +0000

Excerpt from the Ottawa Business Journal, March 6, 2012,

—-

Skyreader Media Inc., Corporate Renaissance Group, March Networks, Solacom Technologies and Telesat Holdings Inc. among local firms recently signing new agreements.

Skyreader Media Inc., which has a presence in Ottawa, has teamed up with the San Diego Zoo to produce three interactive e-books for children. Tentatively titled Wiggens at the San Diego Zoo, these books will follow on from previous bestsellers featuring the fictional Labrador puppy. Skyreader is headquartered in Toronto. The value of the contract was not released.

…complete article here

I Spy

Skyreader — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:02:33 +0000

Want to play I Spy? How many things can your young reader count?

Counting is made fun with the classic game of “I Spy” brought to life in this artful and fun children’s ebook. Children count away as each scene provides fun new interactive things to count!

Features:

- Enjoy the story in three ways: Autoread, Read To Me, or Read Myself

- Explore each scene to discover interactive elements, videos, and hidden surprises

- Professional sound, narration and voice acting by some of the world’s leading creative talent

I Smell a Cat

Skyreader — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:17:13 +0000

Can the birds smell the danger below?

Counting for early and pre-readers is made fun with this beautifully illustrated and fun children’s ebook. Children count away as the crows search desperately to locate the cat they know is on it’s way!

Features:

- Enjoy the story in three ways: Autoread, Read To Me, or Read Myself

- Explore each scene to discover interactive elements, videos, and hidden surprises

- Professional sound, narration and voice acting by some of the world’s leading creative talent

The future role of animated ebooks in e-publishing?

Skyreader — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 02:01:20 +0000

Posted on ebookforum.info

February 25, 2012 in Animated ebooks, eBook Publishing by eBook-expert

I read an article by Vito Pilieci today about the development of standardised software to develop animated ebooks without the need for a specialist developer. The standardisation of production for this format of ebook is a significant step towards what I believe will be the future of ebook publishing for some types of literature – especially childrens books.

The combination of the written word, animation and audio is potentially a strong one that will provide new opportunities to engage and entertain readers. Combine all of this with the potential to provide points of interaction and the possibilities are endless.

Imagine text books that feature interactive animated diagrams and charts, not sure about a point and need clarification? No problem as if you tap on the paragraph you can interact with an animated helper who will guide you and resolve your issue or answer your query.

Animated ebooks can be viewed on tablet computers as well as smartphones but importantly they cannot be viewed on eBook Readers like the Kindle and Kobo. Will this limitation hold eBook Readers back or will they develop the capability to run animated ebooks? It looks like the iPad and tablets have this part of the market covered off for the time being.

There are a number of publishers developing animated ebooks at the moment including Canadian companies Skyreader and Moving Tales. Animated ebooks are mostly targeted at children but Moving Tales has developed a animated ebooks based on classic folk tales.

UK company Vtech is another leader in the animated ebook market, this UK company produces a range of ebooks aimed at children as well as producing ebook readers specifically for each age group of kids.

It will be interesting to see this type of ebook develop as the ebook/tablet generation get older and the market for ebooks and ebook readers develops.

Do you know of any great animated ebooks you have read recently or are you maybe planning to write one? If so then leave a comment and share your story?

Building eBooks Made Easy

Skyreader — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:40:03 +0000

Published in the Ottawa Citizen – Saturday February 27, 2012 – written by Vito Pileici

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OTTAWA — Skyreader Media is hoping to jump-start a fresh wave of growth in the world of eBooks.

The Toronto company, which is a subsidiary of Skywriter Media & Entertainment, does its software development here in Ottawa and is preparing for the launch a new software product that will allow publishers to automate the creation of electronic books for iPad so they can be released far more quickly than current methods allow.

According to the company, publishers turn out more than 95,000 books annually and often have a hard time converting those to eBooks because of the cost.

“Right now it probably takes three or four months and $20,000 or $40,000 to produce an animated book on the iPad,” said Steve Davis, chief technical officer with Skyreader. “We’re now putting technology in place that removes the developers from the loop. That allows our animators and our illustrators to create those books directly with our editing tools. We can get the costs way down, which allows us to create more books.”

Using Skyreader’s services, a publishing company can release an animated book in as little as a week, for around $5,000.

The privately held company employs 15 at its Ottawa offices and seven at its Toronto headquarters. The firm plans to double its head count over the next six months.

Skyreader’s chief executive is Kevin Gillis, the creator of the popular ’80s TV show The Raccoons. Gillis is an Ottawa native who resides in Toronto. Gillis knows about the city’s deep talent pool for technology workers and artistic talent. He said that is what spurred him to set up Skyreader’s technical development team in the nation’s capital.

“We realized that Ottawa is a mecca for technology and certainly for animation,” he said. “It just made a lot of sense to build it out from Ottawa and marry those two disciplines together.”

The company will be launching its automated eBook software offering in the coming weeks. It hopes to licence its software to large publishing companies that are looking to sell their products into new electronic markets.

Prior to eBooks, Skyreader was involved in creating animation and TV shows for youth. It’s more popular creations included Jimmy Two Shoes, Captain Flamingo and Camp Lake Bottom.

Aside from offering tools to allow publishers to make their own books, the company has licensed more than 5,000 children’s books which it will be gradually pushing out to the Apple Inc. App Store as animated storybooks in the coming months. The company already has 20 eBooks on the App Store, ranging from popular Cartoon Network character Atomic Betty and Robert McConnel’s Norbert Nipkin to self-created titles such as Banana Ninja and Coyote’s Tale.

It has also signed well-known children’s book author Leslie McGuirk, who has written titles including Pip The Penguin and Wiggens learns his manners at the Four Seasons restaurant. The deals signed with McGuirk will see Skyreader release new eBooks based on the author’s characters. It is in the process of creating a new Wiggens book in partnership with the San Diego Zoo called Wiggens at the San Diego Zoo.

The company believes by making eBooks more interactive, it can attract a younger generation of readers who are growing up with computers and technology.

“This is taking stories and finding new ways of telling them to kids who, as you know, have grown up on computers and got away from the reading experience,” he said.

“This is about trying to reintroduce the reading experience to kids so they can enjoy it in new ways.”

Skyreader Books Now Available on iBooks

Skyreader — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:20:37 +0000

14 of the Skyreader children’s ebooks are now available in iBooks for the iPad and iPhone.

See them all here

They are the same great stories, available in a different format.