Books
Books that open like books
Bible story books for two to twelve year olds. Tap a cover and it takes over the screen, a page at a time, with nothing else on it. Each one finishes with questions to talk about together and a page to do afterwards.
What is in one
A story, then something to say, then something to do
A story on its own gets read and forgotten by breakfast. The last two pages are what make it stay: a few questions worth asking, and a page they finish themselves.
The story, a page at a time
A picture on one side and a few lines on the other, so there is something to look at while the words are being read out. Short pages. A whole book is a bedtime, not a project.
Talk about it, at the end
Four questions for afterwards and the verse the story came from. Written for the grown up to read out, so you are not left inventing something to ask at half past seven.
Something to do
The last page is an activity, drawn full size. Print it or do it on the screen, and the story turns into something they made rather than something they heard.
Reading one
Full screen, and nothing else on it
A book on a website usually means a small rectangle with a scrollbar and a menu round the edge. These do not do that. The cover opens and the whole screen is the book, which is the difference between reading and browsing.
- Tap a cover and the book fills the screen. Nothing else on it, no menus down the side.
- Turn the page with an arrow key, a click, or a swipe on a tablet.
- It reopens where you stopped, so a book left half read on Tuesday is still half read on Wednesday.
- Escape closes it, and the shelf is exactly where you left it.
Works on a tablet, a laptop or a phone. Nothing to install and nothing to download.
Being straight with you about where this stands: the first books are being written and drawn, so the shelf is short right now. I would rather you knew that before you paid than after.
Who they are for
The shelf sorts itself by age
Two to twelve is a wide gap, and one book cannot cover it. So the shelf is filtered: pick the band and only the books written for that age are left on it.
Two to four
Read to them. Big pictures, a line or two a page, and the question at the end is really just pointing at things and naming them.
Five to seven
Reading along, or reading it out loud to you and getting stuck on a word. This is the band the memory verse starts sticking in.
Eight to twelve
Reading on their own. Longer stories, harder words, and questions at the end that have more than one honest answer.
A book written for eight year olds still gets read to a five year old in plenty of houses, so the bands overlap rather than fencing anybody out.
The books come with the membership
Every book on the shelf, the ad free stories and the whole printable library, for $4.99 a month. The songs and the episode printables stay free whatever you decide.