Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Roger The Scapegoat - an iPad children's book


I'm very excited that Roger The Scapegoat is close to completion. Currently it is in the final stages of coding. This is the first iPad children's book project that I've participated in. Due to the nature of the medium, we're able to turn it into a choose-your-adventure type story, so that the narrative is not straightly linear. I will update with more information when the book is available.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Physics: Why Matter Matters!


I picked up Dan Green and Simon Basher's Physics: Why Matter Matters! during my trip to the Bay area last week. I was leaving the San Jose Tech Museum, walking pass the display window of the store, when Basher's vibrant illustrations literally pulled me back inside. I was ecstatic when I realized they're covers for a series of science books for kids.

Turns out Green and Basher have created a whole bunch of intro science books, including Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, even one dedicated to the periodic table. What makes their books stand out is the way Basher creates these incredibly adorable characters to represent various elements in each topic. For example, for the "old school" chapter of physics, Speed, Force, and Inertia were all represented by different characters (how do you turn something as intangible as INERTIA into a character? it's mind-boggling!), while Green's kid-friendly explanation gives a great introduction of what all these elements do.

I chose Physics: Why Matter Matters! over the others because, as a sci-fi fan, I've always been intrigued by physics. Also there's a whole chapter dedicated to "Wave Gang," which might be useful reference for writing BAIT (as opposed to, say, an hour-long video lecture from a quantum physics professor at MIT O_o). You can pick up a copy of Physics: Why Matter Matters! at amazon.