Review: Readeo (and a free book!)

.





Have a wee one into reading books or being read to?

Check out my friend Coby's little spot on the web: Readeo.

Readeo is a service you and your kids can use to read books or stories with each other no matter how far apart you are.

Think Skype, but with a library. A children's library with over 130 books, and they're adding new books every week.

It's pretty simple: With a decent internet connection and webcam, the audio/visual is seamless (like Skype, Live Messenger etc.) but the cool part is that the books are shared on both screens, so when the page turns on one end, it turns on the other.

Example video of a bookchat here.

Here's the thing: I was totally skeptical. I thought: "There's no WAY the Chief is going to sit down at my computer with me (or anyone else) and read a book." Especially when he knows there's "wocketship" videos on youtube and that motorcycle videogame I may or may not play too much of.

So I spent a few minutes one day browsing the library, and creating a "bookshelf" for him. I found a book I thought he would like: The Racecar Alphabet.

He LOVED it. Really. So did I actually. It's a great book. REAL cars, lively narrative and snappy prose; what's not to like?

We got done reading and he asked for it again. And then again.

Awesome point: with Skype, he's always making faces at the camera or trying to touch Grandma and Grandpa on the screen or getting bored and generally acting like he's got bees in his head. With Readeo, the book becomes the center of attention.

Brilliant.

Head on over to Readeo and take a look around.


SPECIAL OFFER:
Coby has been kind enough to put together a special deal for C. Jane readers: With membership, you get a free hard copy of the Caldecott Honored book Interrupting Chicken and Readeo will donate a book to a child in need through First Book!

Thanks Coby!

All the info you need is here: http://readeo.com/l/cjane.html


.