Bookata - Personalized ebooks.

Why am I telling you about this?

I seem to start a lot of these blog posts by asking questions that I'm supposed to answer.  It seems a bit silly, but . . .

Anyway, in March of this year (2011) I received an email from a person who had read "The Emo Bunny that Should" and one of the poems I wrote to my wife.  He liked my work and wanted me to write a story that could be customized.

I wasn't too sure about it at first, but took a look at the website and decided it had amazing potential.  The stories on it are completely customizable to fit anyone's situation.  There are drop down choices for a person to select from for starters.  Once all the choices are made, a person can edit every section to make adjustments to fit their personal situation.  The illustrations that go with it are exceptional work and add extraordinary life to the work.

The story I wrote is called "A New Pet in the Family".  It was a challenge to write all the different options, but it was also a great deal of fun.  The experience has made me a better writer too.  I'll be writing a customizable love poem for them soon too.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

I highly recommend checking out these stories to see if there's one that may fit your personal situation.

What is Bookata?

From their website:

Bookata is an online platform addressing children's life events through personalized stories. Families and friends use our engine to adapt beautiful narratives and art into unique stories, for actual people, who have a name, a personality, a unique history.
Started in 2009 by three dads (as an amusement for their 7 kids, combined), Bookata aims to become a much appreciated, friendly and familiar provider for content personalization on all tablets and eReaders. We don't target a massive success - we just want one reader at a time to fall in love with our portable, unique, personalized e-books.

A New Pet in the Family

This is the story I wrote.  Artwork was done by the amazing Claudia Mendoza

Kids are willing to promise anything in order to get a new pet. The parents should open their heart but also be prepared to have a bumpy ride, full of adventures, sometimes funny, sometimes less. It is a serious medium and long term commitment and the decision should be wisely taken, with all the family members. To make the enlarging of the family an exciting moment the parent can take elements from the child life into this charming story of love, transition and humor. Like in all Bookata books, the whole story can be personalized. In this case the new rules and responsibilities surrounding the pet, as well as the usual child and sibling gender, age, race, and name. And, of course, the pet: name, breed, color, etc.

A Soft Place to Fall

Birthdays are important milestones that celebrate who we are, who we were, and who we will be. Personalized birthday wishes are a perfect way to honor a child's birthday. With unforgettable moments that illustrate unconditional love, the birthday child will feel the way everyone should feel on their birthday, cherished, unique, extraordinary.

Patch Pirates

Despite two decades of public health initiatives, stricter government dietary guidelines, record growth of farmers’ markets and the ease of products like salad in a bag, American children still aren’t eating enough vegetables. Pediatricians and nutritionists concede that perhaps simply telling people to eat more vegetables isn’t working. There is nothing a parent can say that will get the kids willingly to eat more veggies. Eating vegetables is a lot less fun than eating flavor-blasted Doritos. Bookata is repositioning vegetables as fun filled adventures with pirates characters included. And, of course, your child in the center of the story.

We Had Such A Great Time!

The loss of a pet is hard on everyone. Children can be especially sensitive at this traumatic time. Because it is often a child's first encounter with death, it is important that the situation is handled with care. With this book, a parent can thoughtfully create a remembrance space where the family honors the pet. By integrating real life elements, and events meaningful specifically to the individual pet and family, the parent is better adept at guiding their child in a positive direction toward closure.