An interactive storybook (or CD-ROM storybook) is a children's story packaged with animated graphics, sound or other interactive elements (e.g., word pronunciation). Such stories are usually published as software on CD-ROMs. They have also been referred to as computer books[1], picture book programs,[1]books-on-disk,[2]talking books,[3][4] or living books.[4]
This software is targeted at young readers (usually kindergarten to second grade) for educational purposes.
In their seminal work To Instruct and Delight: Children's and Young Adults' Literature on CD-ROM, H. Bennett wrote, "Something magical and non-threatening happens when a children's story weds a computer."[5]
Children's Tech Review wrote that when a children's book comes to a touch screen, it can be called many names, including: “ebooks,” “living books,” “digital story books,” or even “app books.”[6]
There are studies indicating that some students will simply "cruise through" a story, either just playing with the graphics or not trying to read it themselves.[7]
^Lefever-Davis, Shirley, and Cathy Pearman. "Early readers and electronic texts: CD-ROM storybook features that influence reading behaviors." The Reading Teacher 58.5 (Feb 2005): 446-9.