Book Creator

What is Book Creator?

If you had to guess what Book Creator does, we'd be surprised if you got it wrong - it creates books. Or rather, it gives you the tools to create digital books. It does it online, too, allowing file sharing and collaboration.

Book Creator has long been a favourite of ours.  Our review of Book Creator on iOS awarded it five stars. This app still exists, and we recommend it for personal use. This review is of Book Creator Online, which has a license that restricts it to school use only. To set up a free account, which gives access to most of the app's features, teachers should visit Book Creator's pricing website.

Book Creator's evolved toolset improves flexibility, compatibility, and features while, hopefully, keeping its simple-to-use creative tools for making books.

This review of Book Creator will tell you how well it meets its aims and whether it remains one of our favourites. We'll spoil the surprise here: it does!  Read on to find out why.

What we love about Book Creator?

Book Creator is a web app that goes the extra mile to use the platform fully. Web apps have the capability to partially install on desktop computers, but few choose to use this functionality. This is a pity as it makes web apps, like Book Creator, feel like installed apps, and integrating with the operating system unlocks functionality.

There is another benefit to Book Creator being a web app—compatibility. You might have experience of it in downloadable app formats, and these were great, but they had inconsistencies.  Now, whatever device you use to make books, the app will give the same experience.  This is much better for kids who can now work on their books on whatever device is available to them without adapting to different workflows or layouts.

The compatible device list has grown with it being a web app. Book Creator works on iOS and Android devices but everything else with a browser, too, including PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks. The app should work on all browsers, but its developers have tested it specifically with Safari, Chrome, and Edge.  These cover the vast majority of devices you are likely to use.

As with earlier versions of Book Creator, we found this to enable creativity in kids of all ages and abilities. Its intuitive yet powerful tools produce fantastic-looking books that inspire kids to write more about all sorts of topics and subjects.

What skills does it improve?

Book Creator inspires kids to be creators of content and not just consumers. Using the app, they can consolidate and revise their knowledge for any subject. They will be practising their presentation, grammar, spelling, and general literacy skills as they do.

What age is it appropriate for?

Book Creator is listed for ages of 4+.  All of the content and features in the app are suitable for young kids while also being sophisticated enough for older kids and teachers to employ usefully.

Is Book Creator easy to use?

Book Creator is supported by a wealth of easily-searchable articles. These answered every question raised during this review.  In addition, there is a Book Creator library that shows you how attractive books made in the software can look and provides guidance to using Book Creator in different ways in various subjects.

You'll need to set up an account to use Book Creator, but this process is straightforward.  You can use Clever, Microsoft or Google logins.  Once they have gone through the sign-up process, teachers provide optional information about the ages and subjects they teach to help the app provide relevant supporting resources.

If you get stuck, a helpful chatbot guides you through some of the processes and gives you tips.  As chatbots go, this was a helpful one!

How will students benefit?

How many authors would write if they thought that nobody would read their work? 

Book Creator assures kids that their efforts will be visible to a select audience. Teachers will be able to see them during production and guide their development.  Classmates could share each other's work and provide constructive feedback. Parents, grandparents and other family members can see the finished article when teachers publish the books and share the links.

When their work reaches an audience, kids get more feedback and appreciation of their efforts than they do from an abstract grade and comments from a teacher.

Creating those books won't be a chore either.  Kids creating books might still be developing their literacy skills or subject knowledge, but after a bit of familiarisation, they'll be using the basic layout tools fluently. As they become more confident, they will enjoy adding flourishes and additional presentational elements to their work.

Books comprise whatever balance of text to media that kids choose, including being comic books.  Themes and templates will assist kids who don't know where to start when faced with a blank page.  Writers can import many media types, and through the magic of AI-based Autodraw, the app will suggest appropriate illustrations for simple user-made sketches.

Collaboration is easy too and provides an opportunity for kids to develop social and teamwork skills.  Multiple kids can even work on the same page of the same book simultaneously and see each other's changes in near real-time.

How will parents benefit?

While Book Creator's license doesn't permit use outside of schools, parents can still see the fruits of their children's labours.  It is easier and more convenient to take an interest in their children's schoolwork when it is accessible without a physical copy. 

Parents can read their kids' books whenever they get a chance by accessing them on their mobile devices.

How will teachers benefit?

More so than with the original Book Creator app, Book Creator feels built very much with schools in mind.  Aside from the extra compatibility of it being web-based, it includes many more features that make planning and assessment easier for teachers.

Teachers get kids to create books by inviting them to a library with a unique code.  This works as an organisational process as well as a prompt for kids to begin working.

Teachers don't have to wait until the final version of a book or ask for kids to hand in drafts to provide feedback.  They can comment directly in the books using text, audio, feedback stickers, and emojis. As well as being fun ways to provide feedback, these features also help accessibility as teachers can choose the method best for each child's needs.

Even kids with limited literacy skills can enjoy their classmates' books as Book Creator's read mode also has a read-to-me function for any book kids create.

Book Creator has G Suite for Education and Microsoft Office 365 integration, and the app's thorough and helpful Knowledge Base indicates that the developers will help integrate it with your school's LMS.

For sharing with other iPad users, the most straightforward export option is to save it to iBooks, but it can also be output in the popular PDF format for those using other devices or even as a video for displaying online. Once users are finished with a book, it can be opened in iBooks (iOS), Google Play Books (Android), or any number of other apps such as Dropbox, Evernote, and others. Teachers can create attractive lesson content and children can produce a piece of work to be proud of.

What can Book Creator improve on?

Book Creator is a fantastic app with some great features.  At the moment, only schools can use the app, but we'd love to see this extended to everyone as it offers so much more convenience than a downloadable app.

How much does Book Creator cost?

Creating an account for Book Creator's web app is free, and the basic version allows you to create and store up to 40 books in one library.  In the case of Book Creator, libraries are organisational structures used by teachers to invite kids to create and submit books.

This is a generous free package that is both useful in itself and a great way to check out the Book Creator experience.

What is included with the free version vs. paid?

The premium account for Book Creator allows up to 1,000 books in an unlimited number of libraries.  It also adds extra features that enable collaboration, provide icons, and give book creators data on how readers have engaged with their books. 

With the premium version, users can add a wealth of media and widgets from other apps in a process known as app smashing.  Content in the form of videos, spreadsheets, maps and 3D models is easy to embed into Book Creator, and premium users can also use the built-in Book Creator App Store to embed content from your other creative apps like Canva and Giphy,

The above account works best for individual teachers.  Whole schools and districts can request a volume price that will give every teacher access and provide improved administration tools and LMS integration.

Is Book Creator safe to use?

Book Creator is safe as it is fully compliant with COPPA, FERPA and other state legislation. Book Creator's privacy policy assures us that the app takes student safety seriously, as does the app's various certifications.  Teachers have control over important features, such as whether students can see each other's books or publish them.

Teachers will have to take reasonable care when using some features, though.  For example, students are free to create books with whatever content they want, including identifying information.  Before making books readable by anybody except themselves and the student in question, teachers should be sure that the book contains only sharable content.

This precaution is also needed for links shared with parents.  It is a great feature that teachers can make kids' books available to parents using a private link. The books to which these links lead are not locked behind accounts, making them easy for parents to access.  The links are non-guessable, generated ones.  However, should anyone share these links, other people could read them.  Teachers can unpublish books whenever they choose.

If you are a previous user of Book Creator on iPads, do note the distinction in file management between it and Book Creator:  the iPad app stores all files on the device; the web app stores all files in the cloud.

Overall rating of the app.

As we said at the start of this review of Book Creator, it builds positively on the reputation of the original Book Creator. Taking the form of a web app hasn't been a straight port across but instead has been used as an opportunity to build out the app to meet the needs of teachers and students.

Book Creator is a great value product because schools that use it will have provided a tool that will have value in all subjects, provides an incentive for kids to write more, and makes marking and assessment easier for teachers. 

If you are a teacher, sign up for a free account, try out the premium trial and then get to work on your budget-holder to petition for a school-wide subscription!  As a five-star app it is well worth it.

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