Stories Come Alive With Scholastic’s Augmented Reality Books

AS MANY PARENTS MAY ATTEST, getting children to pick up a book and read can be a daily struggle. For some parents, this may eventually work out with the right choice of books based on their child’s reading growth and interest, but for some, it may still be a constant ‘brawl’ at home.

With the growing popularity of the augmented reality books for children that are available in the market, parents are given fresh options to get their child to read.

These books combine traditional text with digital content that allows interaction between the child and what he or she reads. Thanks to technology, the augmented reality books are intricately designed to work like what we are all familiar with – the Pokémon Go app which took the world by storm.

To be more precise, stories in the augmented reality books come alive and transformed into a 3D interactive experience by just scanning the pages using a smartphone or tablet and a downloaded app. With this format, the child will be able to experience the stories in an interactive and engaging way. This is also the very reason why Scholastic introduces its new range of augmented reality books to give reading and storytime a twist!

In a recent Scholastic Project Augmented Reality event organized at the Event Center of SM Megamall in the Philippines on May 27th as part of the activities under the 2017 National Book Store Grand Summer Art Camp, children and their parents were given a first-hand experience on how the AR technology enhances the reading experience. “The children were amazed at how book characters came alive before their eyes,” said Joyce Bautista, Trade Manager of Scholastic Philippines. “There was a look of wonder in their eyes and most of them said, ‘wow!’ once they learned how to manipulate the images,” she continued.

Scholastic Philippines introduced two of its AR titles – My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as well as Transformers Robots in Disguise during the event. Participating guests were treated to a one-of-a-kind experience where they can interact and customize their favorite characters and make them life size!

“The AR technology is slowly getting popular in the Philippines but this might be the first time that they saw how books can use this technology too. The thing that probably stood out the most was the reaction of the parents and children after we flashed the book trailers on the huge LED screen. We started calling for volunteers to join the games and to our surprise, the children and their parents rushed towards the stage to sign up!” said Joyce.

For more information on the Augmented Reality titles by Scholastic, visit www.scholastic.asia or Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ScholasticAsia.