Knowledge Adventure announced Tuesday Books By You, a new Mac and PC-compatible software program that lets kids create, edit, illustrate and personalize their own books — books that are then available for printing, e-mailing and publishing.
The software includes the framework for four different chapter books, but they’re not entirely pre-written. Actor John Lithgow narrates and asks the children questions. Their answers and details they provide are incorporated into the books. What’s more, kids can provide illustrations, design a book cover, import digital photos, add biography information and make their own dedication.
Once they’re done, kids can save the file as a PDF to e-mail to friends and family, or print on their own computer. What’s more, they can print posters or produce “press releases” to promote their books, and can send out to have their book professionally printed and bound.
System requirements call for a G4/800MHz or better, Mac OS X v10.2.3 or later, 256MB RAM, 32MB VRAM, 16-bit color at 800 x 600 resolution, 24x CD-ROM drive and 200MB hard disk space.
A Knowledge Adventure spokesperson confirmed that Books By You runs on Intel machines, but not natively as a Universal binary.