It’s no secret that children love to play and have fun. Even in schools, younger kids learn through play and love listening to fantastical stories. Reading, on the other hand, can be tiresome or boring for children with lots of energy to spend.
In recent years, many changes have been implemented to make learning more engaging for kids. With the introduction of interactive ebooks, reading sessions can now include listening to audio tracks, viewing videos, or playing mini-games inside the book. Today, you can implement any of these activities in your ebook by adding Kotobee mini-apps to your ebook.
To help you find the best ebook mini-apps for your children’s book, we are going to explore a few of them. So, make sure to bookmark this article since we will keep updating it as we launch new ones!
What Are Ebook Mini-Apps?
Ebook mini-apps are small applications that you can add to your ebook for various purposes.
Unlike book widgets that have to be embedded in certain pages, these mini-apps can be viewed from anywhere inside the ebook. It’s worth noting that both types of apps work in certain ebook formats only, such as EPUB and desktop, web, and mobile apps.
If you’re wondering where you can find these mini-apps, look no further than Kotobee Author. This interactive ebook creation tool natively supports mini-apps and allows you to easily customize them to your liking. If you want to know more about Kotobee mini-apps, you can check out our article on all the mini-apps we offer to date.
Best Kotobee Mini-Apps for Children’s Books
When crafting a children’s ebook, you probably want to make the reading experience as engaging as possible. This means that adding interactive features can be a great choice, especially for kids with attention problems.
With the list of mini-apps below, you can find all the interactive features you might need for a kids’ book. These aren’t the only mini-apps available, though! You can browse through our full list of mini-apps to find more.
Note that all the mini-apps available in Kotobee Author can be customized to your liking.
1. Jigsaw Puzzle
Jigsaw Puzzle is a great mini-app that can help improve your children’s memory. By solving puzzles, they can have fun and grow their analytical thinking skills at the same time.
Key features of this mini-app:
- You can choose between 5 different puzzle sizes: 3×3, 4×4, 5×5, 6×6, and 7×7. This allows you to adjust the puzzle’s difficulty level according to your children’s age groups and preferences.
- If you want to create custom puzzles, you can upload your own images and tailor the puzzles to your content.
How to use this mini-app:
- As a children’s activity, these puzzles are designed to entertain children and help them grow their cognitive abilities and logical thinking skills.
- You can create custom puzzles using images or diagrams from your textbook, which can help your students refresh their memory.
Price: This mini-app costs $25/year.
2. Memory Game
This mini-app is a fun game designed to help children enhance their memory and concentration skills by matching tiles from the board. Not only does it boost their cognitive abilities, but it can also be used as a fun break between studying sessions.
Key features of this mini-app:
- Customize the game by adding your own images for the tiles, making it relevant to the content and appropriate for your kids.
- Choose between 5 different puzzle sizes: 4×4, 5×5, 6×6, 7×7, and 8×8 to control the difficulty level of the game.
How to use this mini-app:
- Use this mini-app to provide support to children who struggle with memory and attention span problems.
- Add the Memory Game mini-app to a textbook where your students must memorize information from. For example, you can set up matching tiles so that one displays a question (for example, an important date) and the other displays the answer (the name of the event that occurred on that date).
Price: This mini-app costs $25/year.
3. Coloring Book
Looking for a great way to wrap up story time for your kids? Give them coloring pages inside the story! With this mini-app, children can color in their favorite characters and scenes whenever they like. As a result, they can express their creativity and associate reading with other fun activities.
Key features of this mini-app:
- Import images from your device or choose one of the preset pictures that are already available.
- Optionally allow kids to upload their own line art to color in.
- Allow kids to choose between 12 different colors as well as 5 thicknesses for the brush.
- Download the final result or save it online to continue later.
How to use this mini-app:
- Introduce your children to digital art using the Coloring Book mini-app.
- Include this mini-app in a storybook so they can reimagine the story’s characters and scenes.
Price: This mini-app costs $50/year.
4. Roll the Dice
If your ebook contains board games or interactive stories, you can add the Roll the Dice mini-app to it. You can also use this mini-app to introduce the concept of random chance to your children. All they have to do is click a button to roll the dice!
Key features of this mini-app:
- Give your readers the option to roll one, two, or three dice simultaneously on top of the ebook.
- Customize the mini-app by changing its icon and title.
How to use this mini-app:
- Use the Roll the Dice mini-app in interactive stories where your kids’ choices will impact the direction of the story.
- Add this mini-app to game-based ebooks that rely on chance or taking turns between rounds.
Price: This mini-app costs $25/year.
5. Flash Cards
Children can quickly grasp new concepts, but they can also forget information just as fast if they don’t reinforce their memory. Thankfully, you can help them do just that with flashcards. With this mini-app, you can prepare cards that display a question on the front and answers on the back. These cards can help your kids memorize key concepts much more easily.
Key features of this mini-app:
- Create and display several flashcards containing questions/terms and their respective answers or definitions (a term on one side and a definition on the other).
- Help children study the course material better by testing their knowledge at any time and anywhere in the ebook.
How to use this mini-app:
- Add the Flash Cards mini-app to your interactive textbooks so your kids can memorize important concepts more quickly.
- If you teach a language class, then flashcards are a great way for kids to learn new vocabulary words.
Price: This mini-app costs $25/year.
6. Soundscapes
If there’s one thing you can do to make learning more enjoyable for kids, it’s adding soundscapes to listen to. Through this mini-app, you can give children the option to listen to soothing ambiance as they read through the ebook. That way, they can immerse themselves deeper into the ebook.
Key features of this mini-app:
- Allow children to play tracks from a list of 9 different soundscapes: Beach, Beach Waves, Birds, Forest, Library, Rain, River, Waterfall, and Wind.
- Let them minimize or maximize the app at any time to control the background soundtrack.
How to use this mini-app:
- Soundscapes can be great for kids who struggle to focus on learning and need extra stimulation.
- Use Soundscapes in ebooks of all genres, from informational textbooks to fantasy stories.
Price: This mini-app costs $25/year.
7. YouTube
Sometimes, written text just isn’t enough for children to understand a new concept. Other times, you just need a visual aid to break up long sections of text. In both cases, you can use this mini-app to embed YouTube videos into the ebook in one place.
Key features of this mini-app:
- Embed YouTube videos using a URL.
- Allow your readers to watch the video without leaving the ebook.
- Give readers the option to play the video in normal size or fullscreen.
- Allow the video to autoplay as soon as readers open the mini-app.
How to use this mini-app:
- Use the YouTube mini-app to showcase every clip you’ve included in the entire ebook to make them more accessible for children.
- Add this mini-app to an interactive textbook with lots of information so that children can better understand difficult concepts through videos.
Price: This mini-app costs $25/year.
8. Image Viewer
Many children like to look at pictures. That’s why many of them love picture books so much. Well, why not add some of that picture book experience to your ebook? With the Image Viewer mini-app, you can add slideshows of interesting images that your kids can browse through at any time while reading the ebook.
Key features of this mini-app:
- Display photo albums to your readers.
- Add captions to each image.
- Allow readers to zoom in and out of each of the images.
- Make navigating through images easy using the “Next” and “Previous” buttons.
How to use this mini-app:
- Use the Image Viewer mini-app to showcase all the images in your picture book.
- Add this mini-app to textbooks so that kids can quickly review diagrams and charts.
Price: This mini-app costs $25/year.
9. Scratchpad
For slightly older kids, having a notepad to quickly write down information can be useful, especially in class. To make that process easier, this mini-app allows kids to take notes directly inside the ebook. This way, they can worry less about finding their notes later and focus more on reading the ebook.
Key features of this mini-app:
- Allow children to write and save an unlimited number of notes.
- Grant kids the ability to access the notes from any chapter.
- Let kids choose between saving the notes locally or on the cloud.
How to use this mini-app:
- Implement the Scratchpad mini-app in storybooks so children can practice active reading.
- Add this mini-app to workbooks so that kids can brainstorm and quickly type in their ideas or solutions.
Price: This mini-app costs $25/year.
10. Glossary
As kids grow, so will their reading comprehension. Still, more often than not, they will come across new words they don’t understand. By including a glossary in your ebook, you can help them overcome that language barrier and get more comfortable with advanced reading.
Key features of this mini-app:
- Add short, concise definitions for a list of terms inside your ebook.
- Allow readers to easily search and scroll through the list of words and definitions that you’ve added.
How to use this mini-app:
- Add the Glossary mini-app to textbooks and storybooks that are above your children’s reading level.
- Make it simpler for kids to understand difficult words and start reading more complex books.
Price: This mini-app costs $25/year.
Final Thoughts
Some children love learning and reading for the sake of it, but others need a bit more encouragement to pick up a book. Thankfully, Kotobee mini-apps can help you transform a regular ebook into an exciting, immersive world for kids to enjoy. And it doesn’t stop there; you can also find in Kotobee a wide range of features that readers of all ages will find useful.
What do you think of these mini-apps? Do you have any suggestions for new ones to add to Kotobee Author? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
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Read More
How to Enrich Your Interactive Ebooks With Kotobee Mini-apps
Book Widgets: Everything You Need to Know
Enhancing Student Engagement: Using Interactive Ebooks for Effective Learning
