You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Independent bookseller Barefoot Books is celebrating its 20th anniversary by launching a new fairytale book app, Barefoot Me Books.
Barefoot Books developed the app, which is aimed at the under-eights market, with digital agency Made in Me. The app is free to download from the iTunes app store and comes preloaded with The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Over the coming months, customers will be able to buy a further five titles for £1.99.
In the UK, Barefoot Books has teamed up with family restaurant chain Giraffe to promote the app. Under the terms of the deal, Giraffe will promote the app both in-store—with bookmarks and free book baskets—and online, through its newsletter. In the promotion’s first week, Giraffe customers who take up the offer will be able to download a free book.
Tessa Strickland (pictured below), co-founder and editor-in-chief at Barefoot Books, said the firm chose to work with Made in Me because the two companies have similar ideas about bringing picture books to life.
“Like Barefoot Books, Made in Me focuses on the quality of interaction between adult and child. It takes storytelling seriously as an art form and places the child’s experience centre stage,” Strickland told The Bookseller.
Made in Me used its existing Me Books technology to make the app, meaning the four months spent on the project were relatively painless, said the company’s m.d. James Huggins.
One of the existing technologies used was Made in Me’s proprietary “draw and record”, which enables the reader to customise audio. “By drawing an area with your finger you can create a series of hotspots and record your voice,” explained Huggins. “It’s a simple device but very powerful and one we firmly believe is true to the experience of enjoying picture books.”
For Strickland, the oral storytelling aspect was very important. “We’ve worked for many years with authors who make their living as professional storytellers and we take a lot of care to ensure that our picture books read aloud as well as possible,” she said.
Both Huggins and Strickland are hopeful that the app is innovative enough to stand out from the competition. “It is the most important question weighing on every app developer’s mind, without a doubt,” said Huggins.
But he added: “Barefoot Books is well-loved throughout the world and it has done an incredible job of building a huge and fiercely loyal customer base. We’re confident we can help this app find its market.”