Common Sense Media Review
By Jenny Bristol , based on child development research. How do we rate?
Magically easy way to create and publish books.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 6+?
Any Positive Content?
Videos and Photos
Book Creator
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 31 parent reviews
Privacy Rating Pass
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
Take the BOOK CREATOR Getting Started tutorial to learn the basics, and then tap the "+" or New Book icon on the main screen. Choose a book shape, theme, or template, and tap the "+" button to add photos, video, text, and sound to the cover page, first page, and so on. If you want to draw but aren't super confident in your skills, you can try the Google AutoDraw for predictive drawing. Then you can move your content around the page, and resize or rotate it as desired. Under the "i" tab, find many options for adjusting or deleting items, changing themes, or adding backgrounds. Every time you want to add something, just tap "+" again. Tap Pages and Edit to reorder or delete pages. When the book is done, share it, download it, publish it, make it available for collaboration, and more. Find the Read to Me button for text to speech to hear your book read out loud. It's possible to translate content into 10 languages.
Is It Any Good?
This amazingly easy-to-use digital bookmaking tool is accessible even to kids in early elementary school grades. Using Book Creator, they can produce and publish their own simple books or comics with images, videos, and audio. That said, given the options for adding images and multimedia, even older kids won't feel limited. Plus, book creation itself gets kids using critical-thinking and organization skills as they brainstorm, plan, and make creative decisions about their books. There's a lot kids can do with Book Creator, so before creating that first book, it's helpful to do the basic tutorial.
The options really are impressive, with the ability to link to an unlimited amount of multimedia content. Though the website is geared toward classroom use, it's all easily adaptable for home use. Even the school subject-based sample books and ideas can be great inspiration for parents and kids at home. Book Creator offers lots of opportunity and flexibility, but because it's easy to create a book, kids are not distracted from the app's main purpose: meaningful multimedia content.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Book Creator can be helpful to get a creative process started. Does it feel different to create on the computer versus with a paper and pencil? What can you do with each format that you can't do with the other?
Write a book for your emerging readers, using words they're familiar with (including their names and photos) to help build reading confidence and interest.
Encourage kids to create books that tell stories about something they've done -- like a family vacation -- or something that interests them.
Website Details
- Subjects: Language & Reading : speaking, storytelling, writing
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning : decision-making, Creativity : imagination, making new creations, producing new content, Self-Direction : effort, self-assessment, Communication : conveying messages effectively, multiple forms of expression, Tech Skills : digital creation, using and applying technology
- Genre: Educational
- Pricing structure: Free to try (Free version supports one library and 40 books. For $10 per month, this expands to unlimited libraries with 200 books each.)
- Last updated: May 27, 2021
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