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Guest Blog Post: Tusitala Books

Tusitala is a digital publishing company in Singapore that publishes books as apps for the iPad and iPhone. By digital publishing, we mean that we're trying to take what is incredible and timeless about books-- all those beautiful illustrations and simple heartwarming stories-- and adding some really great technology to the mix. The results (as we hope you'll see for yourself!) are book-apps that are visually stunning and genuinely enjoyable for kids and parents both.

One of the things we appreciate most about children's literature is how they can be such a wonderful bridge between the worlds of children and adults. When parents read these stories to their kids-- adopting funny voices for different characters or mimicking the actions of various characters-- it creates a lasting bond between parent and child. It's an experience no parent or child should miss out on. Our first series of children's books apps, the Lola Grows Up series was built on this premise of known voices telling you a story, truly personalising it. So it's created with a recording facility, so parents can record their own voices telling the story for kids to listen to anytime. (Parents are a notoriously busy bunch, after all!) Kids have great fun recording and listening to their own voices, too, and it's a great tool for them to practice reading, or just enunciating clearly.



The Toilet Monster and Come Dream With Me are the first two titles in our Lola Grows Up series. It's nice to have apps that we're proud of but really, nothing is more gratifying than hearing parents tell us how much their children like the app and even better, how much they enjoy reading it together. The main character of these books, Lola, is an adorable little girl with ordinary little-girl fears-- she's a little afraid of the toilet, and she doesn't like going to sleep by herself. It's a character kids can empathise with as well as learn from, through the 'everyday adventures' that she goes through.




Apart from our series for toddlers, we also have a few titles for young adults. One of them is The Origins of Shaolin Kungfu, which is a really entertaining and educational comic about Shaolin history and culture. It even includes little video demos and a couple of games in which you can attain the level of Shaolin Master!




Another one that we love is The Grim Granary, a book of quirky illustrated poems with accompanying voiceovers in various voices and accents. It really is hilarious and we're sure readers of any age will find something to love about it.





As you can probably tell, we're really proud of our book-apps, and it makes us happy to know that there's a tiny part of a generation of children who's growing up with them. Nothing makes us happier. If you want to find out more or check out some apps, visit our website or email us at soumya@tusitalabooks.com or wendy@tusitalabooks.com.

Wendy Wong
Director/Head of Design
Tusitala

Comments

  1. Very cool. I've been at workshops that have discussed apps, and I've seen demos.

    These apps look cute.

    Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  2. They do! I love the illustrations. :o)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the illustrations too - very interesting work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Let's all keep our eyes on Tusitala Books. :o)

    ReplyDelete

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