Living Books

Living Books
Founded December 1, 1992 (1992-12-01)
Headquarters United States
Owner Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Parent Random House/Brøderbund

Living Books was a series of interactive storybooks for children, first produced by Brøderbund and then spun off into a jointly-owned (with Random House) subsidiary, which were distributed on CD-ROM for Mac OS 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, P. D. Eastman, and Berenstain Bears titles.[1]

Atlantan production company Red Rubber Ball (later Little Ark Interactive) created a series of biblical-themes interactive storybooks under contract from Living Books in the late 1990s, and developed under the direction of members of the original Living Books team.

By 2013, Wanderful, Inc. obtained the rights of the series and ported most of them to the iOS platforms[2] and also added additional languages to the products.[3] The Dr. Seuss and Little Critter titles were ported to iOS by Oceanhouse Media.[4]

The assets are currently licensed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.[5] As of 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is offering the Living Books brand as a licensing opportunity on its website.[6]

Games in the series

Title Author(s) Year Other language(s) Number of Pages Notes
Just Grandma and Me, 1983 Mercer Mayer December 1, 1992
  • Japan (V 1.0)
  • Spain
  • France (V 2.0)
  • Germany (V 2.0)
 12 Version 2.0 released in 1997, which included a game.
Arthur's Teacher Trouble, 1986 Marc Brown December 1, 1992
  • Spain
 24
The Tortoise and the Hare Aesop September 1, 1993 12 The first original Living Books story that is not based on any real books, because Mark Schlichting, founder of Living Books, retold this classic fable. This version uses humorous twists and cartoon animal characters.
The New Kid on the Block, 1984 Jack Prelutsky and James Stevenson February 1, 1994 17
Ruff's Bone Eli Noyes February 1, 1994
  • Spain
 12 The second original Living Books story, but it's actually produced by Colossal Pictures and created and written by Eli Noyes, the producer of the 1964 short claymation film Clay or the Origin of Species. The style is different from the other two original Living Books games.
Little Monster at School, 1978 Mercer Mayer October 28, 1994 18
Arthur's Birthday, 1989 Marc Brown November 23, 1994 13 Version 2.0 released in 1997, which includes an increased resolution and two minigames.
Harry and the Haunted House Mark Schlichting November 23, 1994 12 The third Living Books game that is not based on anyone's books. This is the only original Living Books story that was officially created by Mark Schlichting, founder of Living Books. This was actually written and published in 1987 as a paperback book.
The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight, 1982 Stan and Jan Berenstain July 13, 1995 11
Dr. Seuss's ABC, 1963 Dr. Seuss July 13, 1995 26 Sing-a-long is included.
Sheila Rae, the Brave, 1987 Kevin Henkes April 2, 1996
  • Spain
 12 A game and 7 sing-a-longs are included.
Green Eggs and Ham, 1960 Dr. Seuss September 17, 1996 19 3 games are included.
The Berenstain Bears in the Dark, 1982 Stan and Jan Berenstain September 17, 1996 12 2 games are included.
Stellaluna, 1993 Jannell Cannon September 17, 1996 14 A game is included.
Arthur's Reading Race, 1996 Marc Brown February 28, 1997 12 3 games are included.
The Cat in the Hat, 1957 Dr. Seuss September 30, 1997 12 A game is included.
Arthur's Computer Adventure, 1997 Marc Brown July 28, 1998 16 5 games are included.
D.W. the Picky Eater, 1995 Marc Brown December 22, 1998 10 Also known as Arthur's Adventures With D.W.. New menu system. Four games are included.
Fox in Socks, 1965 Dr. Seuss August 10, 1998 3 A game is included.

Availability

Several former Brøderbund leaders have released selected titles as fully interactive animated applications for Apple mobile devices, as well as for Android as Wanderful Interactive Storybooks.

Brøderbund released two compilations of the stories. The first one was titled "Three for Me Library Volume 1™" which contained "Sheila Rae, the Brave", "Just Grandma and Me" and "Little Monster at School".[7] The second one was titled "Three for Me Library Volume 2™" which contained "The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight", "Tortoise and the Hare" and "Harry and the Haunted House".[8]

Reception

Computer Gaming World in 1993 praised Just Grandma and Me and Arthur's Teacher Trouble, describing Living Books as "Broderbund's acclaimed series".[9] 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."[10] 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".[11] 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.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Series Review "THE LIVING BOOKS Series by Living Books/Broderbund." McMath, Chuck. Game Bytes Vol 1. Num. 21. 1994. Retrieved March 24, 2007.
  2. ↑ "Wanderful Storybooks on the App Store". iTunes. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Wanderful Storybooks - Living Books". Wanderful Storybooks. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  4. ↑ "Oceanhouse Media Apps". Oceanhouse. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  5. ↑ "About Us". www.little-ark.com. Retrieved 2017-03-05.
  6. ↑ "Licensing Opportunities". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  7. ↑ Brøderbund (April 12, 1997). "The Three For Me Library Volume 1™". Archived from the original on April 12, 1997. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  8. ↑ Brøderbund (April 12, 1997). "The Three For Me Library Volume 2™". Archived from the original on April 12, 1997. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Forging Ahead or Fit to be Smashed?". Computer Gaming World. April 1993. p. 24. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Multimedia Reviews: Dr. Seuss' ABC". Publishers Weekly. New York: Cahners Publishing Company. 242 (35): 41. August 28, 1995. ISSN 0000-0019.
  11. ↑ Garfinkel, Simson L.; Beth Rosenberg (February 5, 1998). "Bringing kids' books to life". Boston Globe Online. Globe Newspaper Company. Retrieved November 2, 2009.
  12. ↑ 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.
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