We Make Stories: tool to let kids make physical books

Jeremy Ettinghausen from Penguin sez,

We Make Stories is a unique suite of digital tools for children to create, print and share a variety of innovative story forms. Members will be able to create pop-up books, customise audiobooks, design their own comics, produce exciting treasure maps and learn how to create a variety of entertaining adventures. The site has been developed with a group of interaction designers and is aimed at 6-11 year olds.

Jason Bradbury, author of Dot Robot and presenter of the Gadget Show has played with the site and says; "I am constantly playing with technology and stories - this site brings the two together in a blissfully easy to use and engrossing interface." Membership of the site will cost £5.99/$9.99 for individuals and £49.99/$74.99 for a schools licence (up to 15 users).

We Make Stories (Thanks, jeremyet!)

[#1 posted by elvix, June 29, 2009 8:25 AM]

This site is built on Flash and completely closed off. Kids can only share their stories via email with other members.

If this were an adult site, you'd excoriate them for being this cut off. But it's a kids site, so it's OK? As an expecting father, I'm honestly curious. (Much to learn.)

To what degree should kids be able to share their creations?

[#2 posted by jeremyet, June 29, 2009 8:53 AM]

Just to clarify, members can send stories to non-members and stories in the gallery are viewable by all. Kids can also print out their stories and send them by mail if they want! We spent a lot of time balancing shareability and child-safety issues (and as a parent it's something I'm personally very aware of). All of this is new to us, so I'll guess we'll see whether we got the balance right.

[e-mail]

[#3 posted by Anonymous, June 29, 2009 9:01 AM]

When I was 11 in 1984, there was a volunteer group of moms that came to my public school on certain days and helped physically make books out of pages we created in class. It was very cool and I still have those books I made then. No internet or membership fees required. However it is done, I still think it's a good idea.

[#4 posted by Amasa, June 29, 2009 9:08 AM]

TOS:
"You hereby grant Penguin a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable (in whole or part) worldwide license to use, reproduce, transmit, exhibit, modify, adapt, translate, publish, distribute and display any Submissions you Distribute on or through the Site in any format now know or later developed. If you do not want to grant Penguin these rights, please do not Distribute your Submissions. "

Create a story and give it to Penguin.

[#5 posted by Alessandro Cima, June 29, 2009 2:12 PM]

I've written a review over on CandlelightStories.com that makes my feelings about this kids site abundantly clear. I'm not buying the 'we're new to this' nonsense. The site is not clearly priced and relies on an after-the-fact email being sent to parents to request payment. Not on my watch. Sorry. Try again.

[#6 posted by h4nchan, June 30, 2009 10:37 AM]

This is a fantastic tool that I would happily spend hours playing with - and I'm 25. I'll be getting it for all my young cousins in time for the summer holidays!