Got kids? Get this: Yo! Millard Fillmore

Recently I’ve had the pleasure of working on a new "enhanced ebook" version of a book I’ve known and loved since it was first published in 1992, the very cool Yo, Millard Fillmore! by Will Cleveland and Mark Alvarez, with illustrations by Tate Nation ($7.95 in the iBookstore.)  Using mnemonics and lots of brilliant wordplay, kids can learn the presidents quickly and easily and have fun doing it. Working with the very creative Ron Martinez of Aerbook, we have completely re-envisioned the book’s contents to take advantage of the many multi-media advantages that the Apple iBook platform enables.  And how fun is it for this early effort in e-book building to be recognized - named by USA Today as one of the ten coolest book apps of 2011.  Here’s what that newspaper’s Charlotte Abbott said about Yo, Millard:

The details: This amusing educational app is based on a best-selling book that promises to teach kids how to memorize the U.S. presidents in 20 minutes. Colorful cartoon videos bring alive the book’s wacky mnemonic memorization devices (for example, a washing machine stands for George Washington), while chronological mini-biographies of each president keep kids grounded in facts, and interactive quizzes help ensure full comprehension.

The ebook includes more than 30 minutes of video, interactive how-to diagrams, and a way to navigate that lets kids either just run through the cartoon mnemonics, dive into historical detail about the U.S. presidents, or alternate between both with one touch.

Next up is the ehanced ebook version of the companion volume, Yo, Sacramento! which naturally features our fifty states and capitals, but in the ebook version, adds an video that shows America becoming a country, state by state.

There is a tremendous amount of creativity brewing as people learn to use the new capabilities that ebooks allow us.  I’ve said before that we are just at the early stages, but books like Yo, Millard Fillmore! and Yo, Sacramento! are going to demonstrate a new path to the future for readers of all ages.  And will make it fun too.

Visit the YoLearnAlot website for more about the ebooks,and don’t forget the print book versions too - no color and no moving parts, but still alot of fun and great gifts, Yo,Millard Fillmore! and Yo, Sacramento!