Living Books series
Living Books | |
---|---|
Parent company | Random House/Brøderbund |
Founded | 1992 |
Status | Currently owned by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
Country of origin | United States |
Location |
Eugene, Oregon San Rafael, California Novato, California Tulsa, Oklahoma Syracuse, New York Phoenix, Arizona |
The Living Books series is a series of interactive animated multimedia children's books, first produced by Brøderbund and then spun off into a jointly-owned (with Random House) subsidiary, which were distributed on CD-ROM for Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. The series began with the release of Just Grandma and Me (an adaptation of the book by Mercer Mayer) in 1992; other titles in the series included The Tortoise and the Hare, Arthur's Teacher Trouble (and other adaptations of books by Marc Brown), Dr. Seuss and Berenstain Bears titles.[1] Nicely produced "play-through" videos on most Living Books titles can be found on YouTube and Several former Brøderbund leaders are now releasing the titles on iOS and Android as Wanderful interactive storybooks.
CD-ROMs in the series
Story | Author | Year | Other Language(s) | Notes |
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Just Grandma and Me | Mercer Mayer | 1992 |
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Version 2.0 released in 1997, which also includes a sandcastle game. |
Arthur's Teacher Trouble | Marc Brown | 1993 |
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The Tortoise and the Hare | Aesop (with the Mark Schlichting version) | 1993 |
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The New Kid on the Block | Jack Prelutsky and James Stevenson | 1993 | ||
Ruff's Bone | Eli Noyes | 1994 |
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Harry and the Haunted House | Mark Schlichting | 1994 |
|
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Arthur's Birthday | Marc Brown | 1994 |
|
Version 2.0 released in 1997, which also includes two games. |
Little Monster at School | Mercer Mayer | 1994 |
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The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight | Stan and Jan Berenstain | 1995 |
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Dr. Seuss's ABC | Dr. Seuss | 1995 | ABC board game is included. | |
Sheila Rae, the Brave | Kevin Henkes | 1996 |
|
Sing-a-Long and a game are included. |
The Berenstain Bears in the Dark | Stan and Jan Berenstain | 1996 | Two games are included. | |
Green Eggs and Ham | Dr. Seuss | 1996 | Three games are included. | |
Stellaluna | Jannell Cannon | 1996 | A quiz game is included. | |
Arthur's Reading Race | Marc Brown | 1997 | A board game is included. | |
The Cat in the Hat | Dr. Seuss | 1997 | ||
Arthur's Computer Adventure | Marc Brown | 1998 | Five games are included. | |
D.W. the Picky Eater | Marc Brown | 1998 | New menu system. Four games are included. |
Reception
Publishers Weekly, in a review of Dr. Seuss' ABC, called that title "one of the best children's CD-ROMs to date" and stated that, "[...] the producers' fondness for Dr. Seuss and their fidelity to his sense of refined silliness spill into every sequence."[2] Simson L. Garfinkel and Beth Rosenberg found that the CD-ROMs played better on Macs than on PCs. Although they found the titles to be of high quality in a market flooded with "questionable" releases for children, they stated that not all of them lived up to the company's educational claims (noting Dr. Seuss' ABC and Arthur's reading Race as exceptions) and felt that the added dialogue supplementing the book's text was sometimes "out of character". [3] Arthur's Teacher Trouble, The Tortoise and the Hare, Ruff's Bone, and Little Monster at School all received a very high score of over 90.00 in the book CD-ROMs Rated by Les Kranz; in the review for Little Monster at School, the graphics and the number of clickable areas were described as positives.[4]
References
- ↑ Series Review "THE LIVING BOOKS Series by Living Books/Broderbund." McMath, Chuck. Game Bytes Vol 1. Num. 21. 1994. Retrieved March 24, 2007.
- ↑ "Multimedia Reviews: Dr. Seuss' ABC". Publishers Weekly (New York: Cahners Publishing Company) 242 (35): 41. 1995-08-28. ISSN 0000-0019.
- ↑ Garfinkel, Simson L.; Beth Rosenberg (1998-02-05). "Bringing kids' books to life". Boston Globe Online. Globe Newspaper Company. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
- ↑ Kranz, Les (1994). CD-ROMs Rated: A Guide to the Best and Worst CD ROMs & Multimedia Titles. Laura L. Armer, Adrienne Brown, Joel Gershon, and Pamela Thomasson (Senior Reviewers), and Marjorie Glass, Brian Harrison, Douglas W, Horner, Corolyn Huesman, Dan Laxton, Vivian Laxton, and Josh Sinton (Reviewers). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-912052-0.