A Mission to Inspire

Wanderful seeks to inspire young and emerging readers to build a lasting love of language, reading and learning through highly interactive multilingual storybook apps with integrated lesson plans aligned to the Common Core State Standards. We strive to:

1. Engage children with each story by filling every storybook with animation, sound and musical antics that support the story.

2. Give life to all words on each page by highlighting them when spoken and allowing young readers to build original phrases by tapping and hearing the words individually.

3. Expose children to multiple languages from any storybook page.

4. Integrate the story experience into the classroom curricula with activities that expand on the storybook themes

Wanderful: The freedom to be yourself and play inside the story. Wanderful is whimsical and uninhibited, inspiring young readers to wander through the stories, finding wonder as they explore each and every page.

The Wanderful Story

Wanderful CEO Mickey W. Mantle, embarked on a journey to revive the award-winning Living Books the moment he saw the first iPad announced by his old boss Steve Jobs. He knew it represented the right platform upon which to introduce a new generation of kids to these classic interactive experiences. And he was no stranger to these titles; Mickey oversaw the original Living Books technology development as Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technical Officer at Brøderbund Software in the 1990s.

 

So he reached out to Mark Schlichting – creator of the Living Books series – and attracted a small team of the original Brøderbund programmers to create the prototype for a new generation of technology that could take the animation, graphics, sound, and music from the original Living Books CD-ROMs and play them back at full-screen resolution on the iPad using a touch, rather than a mouse driven interface.

 

Mickey approached Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the eventual successor to Brøderbund and owner of Living Books, and to the authors of the original stories to secure the rights to republish the new and improved titles. Meanwhile, the team built a multi-platform engine that again innovates beyond expectation, with new features such as dynamically changing languages from any page in the story. The engine delivers a level of character animation not seen in many other titles today; as in the original Living Books, when something is tapped it doesn't just move, it comes to life.

 

All in all, it took more than two years to secure the rights, enhance the products and launch Wanderful Interactive Storybooks so that a new generation of children around the world can enjoy these amazing educational experiences.

 

More>>

Download "Classical Entertainment on Current Technologies" article in Feb 2015 issue of CGW

 by M. Mantle

How Living Books and Wanderful got started...

Classical Entertainment on Current Technologies" article in Feb 2015 issue of CGW  by M. Mantle

https://wanderfulstorybooks.com/STAGE/livingbooks_littlecritter_just_grandma_and_me.html

Engaging multimedia and interaction

Why these Apps are so Beloved

Developed from the original Living Books collection, these engaging storybooks are insanely fun, interactive and timeless. You simply can not wear them out and the dog won't chew them up.

Mickey W. Mantle

Founder of Wanderful Interactive Storybooks

Mr. Mantle had the foresight to license the exclusive rights to the beloved Living Books series of interactive storybooks and revive them as enhanced mobile apps. Mickey has a 40+ year software industry track record. A graduate of the University of Utah with a degree in Computer Science (contemporary with computer industry notables such as the founders of Word Perfect, Silicon Graphics, Netscape, Adobe Systems, and Pixar), his career includes working at computer graphics pioneer Evans & Sutherland (E&S), and then joining Pixar shortly after it was bought by Steve Jobs in 1986. At Pixar, Mickey managed the development of all of the software for their external products, including the Pixar Image Computer and RenderMan. It's worth noting that RenderMan is the gold standard of 3D photorealistic rendering software and, for nearly 30 years, has been used on almost every Visual Effects Academy Award Winner. In 1991, Mickey joined Brøderbund Software as Vice President of Engineering/Chief Technical Officer where he managed the vast development organization that produced numerous award-winning PC and Mac games such as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Kid Pix, Myst and Living Books. Leaving Brøderbund in late 1997, he joined Gracenote where, as Senior Vice President of Development, he managed all development, operations and professional services associated with the pioneering web-based CDDB/Gracenote music format.

Classroom Activity Guides

Activities aligned with the Common Core State Standards bring the interactive storybooks to life in your class.

Classroom Activity guides are available as an in-app purchase, click to download the free preview

Download

Applications that teach children about Language

The Wanderful Interactive storybooks are being released in new languages and language combinations. Language as a central part of what makes these apps special - including the ability to instantly switch between the languages in each app. They are now available in the following full language versions: UK English

 

CLICK HERE TO REVIEW ALL LANGUAGE OPTIONS

French, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian and Portuguese

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© 2023 Wanderful, LLC (DBA: Wanderful Interactive Storybooks). A Jordan Freeman Group Company. Powered by ZOOM Platform. All Rights Reserved. Living Books is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, used with permission. Arthur, © Marc Brown Studios, All Rights Reserved. Little Critter, Little Monster, © Mercer Mayer, All Rights Reserved.