My Story - Story Creator For Kids - Plus, You Could Win A Copy!

The app is easy to use. First, you will be asked to name your book. Once that is done, you can start creating artwork for your book’s cover. When creating your artwork, you have four tools from which to choose: pencil, paintbrush, triangles, or eraser. Choose the desired width for your tool. Pick a color from the nearly 20 choices, and start drawing/painting. Use the undo/redo arrows if needed.

Once your drawing is complete, add text to each page. Tap the arrow at the bottom right to access the text box. Once you have the text, you can record your voice (or your child’s voice) reading the page, if you like. Simply tap the microphone icon to begin recording. This is a special feature, not generally found in apps like this.

When you have completed the page, tap the square at the bottom left corner to go back to your storyboard. This storyboard shows you the pages you have so far. To add another page, tap the paper/pencil icon at the top right corner. Continue in this fashion until your book is complete.

Once you’ve finished your book, go back to the main menu and select the book you would like to read. Here, you have the option to Read, Edit, or Delete the book. To read, swipe from page to page, just like any other e-book. On each page that you’ve recorded audio, you’ll see a “play button” (a green box with a white arrow inside) you can tap to hear it.

This is a brand new app, version 1.0, and the developer seems committed to improving it and bringing more features. For example, updates will allow the user to delete single pages out of the book, if desired. In fact, there are quite a few nice features coming up, as developer Brian Vanaski tells me:

“Our 1.0 release was all about the core experience of creating an intuitive and easy to use app for creating a story from scratch. We will continue to build upon this foundation with each release.

Now, in play testing some kids have shown that they really would love to have a character, setting, or maybe even a plot "ready to use" to spark their own creativity. Storyboards and built-in backgrounds are two ways My Story will meet this need without losing its mission to unlock imagination. We'll simply be helping their story get started.

Parents would also love to have ways to share their child’s story with family and friends. My Story has a few exciting sharing enhancements coming in the next few releases that will not only make sharing illustrations a reality, but also the audio recorded for each page.

Finally, My Story has plans to use iPad 2’s built-in camera for taking pictures as a tool to build richer stories. Imagine your child creating a story about their first trip to the zoo using pictures, drawings, and audio to capture every detail in a fun and imaginative way for the whole family to enjoy and remember.

My Story has a solid team behind it with a passion for children, and its goal is to be the best way for children to create narratives, unlock imagination, and spend quality time with parents and other loved ones.”

Would you like to win a copy? Please note this is an iPad-only app. If you would like to win, you can retweet this article and/or comment below. If you retweet, be sure you are following AppAdvice; if you comment, be sure your email address is registered with Disqus. Otherwise, we won’t be able to reach you. You can enter up to twice, once each way, if desired. Two lucky winners will be selected and given a promo code. Contest ends on August 10 at 9:00 a.m. EDT. Good luck!