8 Asians

Children’s books are all the rage – in my house. We’re always looking for stories that veer away from the traditional Mother Goose rhymes or Brothers Grimm. I ran across this from Asian Week:

“The ancient Chinese Zodiac comes to life in the latest release from ItsyBitsyStories: ’123 The Emperor’s Calling, a Story of the Chinese Zodiac.’  This is the latest edition of interactive learning stories series for children ages 2 and up for the iPad. It can be enjoyed as a colorful, interactive, animated story book, or also as a learning tool for basic counting and calendar. The story of the Chinese Zodiac is the fascinating tale of a Chinese Emperor who sponsors a race among the animals of his kingdom for a place in the Chinese Zodiac. Meet and interact with the lazy Cat, the cunning Rat, the excitable Horses, and the confused Rooster.”

I know some of our writers are sick of the Zodiac, but here’s one for the kids. Now that I spend 50% of my time reading Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See and Sandra Boyton books, I’m always on the look out for new books for the babies, even though they prefer to chew on them rather than read them.

From their information page: “ItsyBitsyStories is a new press that was founded for the purpose of bringing the wisdom and mythic tales of the world’s ancient cultures to new generations of young people.  And, in the process, blending the long-standing traditions of story-telling with today’s portable digital devices.”

I haven’t checked any of these out – but will soon. Curious to see whether these are truly educational and “accurate” or if they’re gimicky and caricatured for the sake of cute pictures.