Review: Create Your Own Books at Big Universe [Giveaway #8]

Two months have passed since Vee and I had our Big Universe account and published our first review at “Read Hundreds of Children’s Books at Home – Big Universe”. Since then, we have read several more books online and these are two of our favourites:

(Images sourced from Big Universe)

1. Fix It, Sam by Lori Ries
2. Super Sam by Lori Ries

The books are beautifully illustrated by Sue Ramá and very suitable for young children.

Vee’s First Personalised Book Published

The creation tool enables you to create, print and publish your own children’s picture book online. There are already 12,742 books created by Big Universe members! I was super-excited over creating Vee’s very first book and took an idea from The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley: create a personalised book for Vee to help him learn sleeping on his own without nursing through the night.

There is a guide available to help you create your first book. As the guide took some time to download and I was getting very eager, I skipped it and got down to creating the book straightaway. The functions are rather intuitive and easy to figure out. I created the picture book by doing the following:

1. Think of a book title
2. Type out the story line
3. Insert appropriate pictures from the 7000+ clipart images available
4. Preview the book
5. Publish it and wait for approval

All done within Vee’s two-hour nap. I submitted the book for approval last evening and received approval at about 1a.m. today, which means it took about one working day.

The clipart images are relatively sufficient for our first book, though I would prefer even more to choose from. One irony is that an inserted picture could be dragged about with ease but not a text box.

After the book is published, its link can be shared with family and friends via email or social networking sites such as Facebook. So here you are… our FIRST published book:

Title: Vee Sleeps on His Own (Click on the title to read it)
Author: MieVee
Description: This book is about helping a boy, Vee, to learn sleeping on his own without breastfeeding.

Other Book Ideas

With this easy-to-use book creation tool, I plan to tailor-make more books for Vee’s learning. Since the Shichida Method™ suggests reading 3 to 5 books daily, I can create some books to add to our home library in a cost-efficient way. Special stories can also be created to match theme-based learning. This would save time from shopping for the ‘perfect’ book. Some story ideas:

• Potty-training book to encourage child to potty-train faster
• Nursery rhyme song books: read and sing along (Vee would LOVE these!)
• Good habits book (Brush teeth, greet family members, wash hands before meals, etc.)

With a bit more time, inserting your family’s own pictures into the books would make them more interesting and convincing. For offline reading, you may also print your books and bind them up. Gosh… I have a feeling this tool would be a staple for our home-schooling lessons!

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What we like about it (Books Creation/Publishing Tool):

• Easy to use
• Fast approval for book submitted
• Published book easily shared with family and friends
• Relatively large library of clipart images
• Own images can be inserted into books
• Very cost-effective for home lessons

What can be improved:

• Text box: allow it to be dragged easily (like the image box)
• Allow saving of book in pdf format (If anyone manages to do this, please show me how.)
• Allow publishing of books in Mandarin (currently, only English books are approved.)

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Win Your Own

ONE (1) lucky subscriber will win a 6-month Premium Home account membership worth USD53.70!

This is how to participate:

• Subscribe to Mummy’s Reviews™ in a reader or via email (existing subscribers counted)
• Send an email to me with the following information:
  • Your name
  • Facebook nickname, if any
  • Visit BigUniverse.com and state one reason why you would like to win this Giveaway
  • If you are a new reader, mention how you got to know of this Giveaway
  • Blog / Website URL, if any

• To get EXTRA entries:
  • 1 extra entry: Become Mummy’s Reviews fan on Facebook (existing fans counted)
  • 1 extra entry (unlimited total): For each participant referred by you (e.g. through sharing the Giveaway on Facebook)
  • 3 extra entries: Share this Giveaway on your blog / website

Other Information:

• This Giveaway is open to subscribers worldwide.
• It will run until 4 July 2010.
• The usual Giveaway Terms apply.

Send in your entries now and good luck!

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Get Your Own

To experience Big Universe now, sign up for a FREE trial of the Home account here. The Home account is available at USD8.95 per month or USD79.95 per year. If you mention that “mievee” referred you, I get a month of subscription free. While I would be elated, this is absolutely optional.

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Disclosure: I received a 6-month Premium Home account for review.