Our Story

Imagine a child (poor or rich) facing life disruptions caused by divorce or relocation, finding out that even with such circumstances she/he can still become President of the United States.  Would that help keep their hope up and foster their belief in their own potential?  We think so and we want to tell that story using innovative technology.

At Sharing-Books We help authors of children books e-publish and find an audience.  And we invest time and effort in developping interesting children books into interactive books for tablets.  We do this because we believe tablets will soon become an important education tool for children, and because we have committed to give 1/3 of the sales revenue from these books to help Room to Read accomplish its mission to foster literacy and education gender equality in developping nations.  The author and illustrator get another 1/3 of the book revenue, and we operate a very lean team with the last 1/3. And of course we have a lot of fun building these interactive books!

We are seeking your investment to help us fund the development of an interactive tablet book called The Island Child.  This is a book relating the first ten years of Barack Obama's life.  It is not a partisan book.  It simply tells the story of a child with a disrupted early life who is now President of the United States.  It shows to children living similar circumstances that they have great potential.  We love the book and we want to create an interactive book with it.

This is our second interactive book.  You can find more about the first one at www.augusterodent.com

The Impact

Whether you are a democrat or a republican, right wing or left wing, you will see the value of the real lesson of this book.  Barack Obama's early life was highly disrupted.  This is the reality of a large number of children today who are caught in separations, divorces and multiple re-locations.  The universal lesson here, the hope to share with children, is that you can still become President of the United States even if your childhood has been disrupted by events outside your control. 

This lesson is intuitive, Oklahoma storyteller Loralee Cooley sticks to describing the first ten years of President Obama's life from a child's perspective.  She did extensive research and added a wealth of factoids about the various locations where President Obama lived.  These factoids offer us opportunities to develop interactive features to keep young readers entertained while learning.

The book has been illustrated by Kingston, Canada, artist Jilian Hulme Gilliland using a black and white ink drawing style that gives the book a great charm.  Sharing-Books designer Drea Morin, an Adobe Design Achievement Award Nominee based in Santa Monica, will enhance the book using a silouhette style and prepare it for interactive features.  Sharing-Books visual communicator Kelsey Armour, also an Adobe Design Achievement Award nominee will turn our ideas into reality.  This is a US-Canada collaboration of artists devoted to children.

What We Need & What You Get

Because we keep everything virtual, we are extremely efficient with our funds.  We are seeking $9,000 to pay for the time of the digital artists involved.  This is a minuscule budget for this type of project, but we have learned much from our first interacitve book and we know we can produce a quality interactive book very fast.

We hope that by investing in this project you will get the same sense of purpose we feel in telling a story that will inspire kids living a disrupted childhood. 

Other Ways You Can Help

Of course, like all IndiGoGo campaigns, we need and appreciate your help in passing our project to all your friends who you think will see the value of inspiring kids to believe they can overcome unfavourable circumstances.