Customer Reviews

Knowledge Adventure Books by You Win/Mac [Old Version]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

In reading the description, I was expecting that it would guide a child in writing their own book. NOT SO. It just has a story written out, and blanks for the child to fill in. It is NOT their own book. My daughter, who is 9 years old, is very much into writing and has written many chapters of her own imagination. I thought this product was going to help her fine-tune it and guide her along proper techniques and examples of how to perfect her writing into a book that she can be ready to publish. So, beware. This program is already a story written, just fill in the blanks.

I am a teacher of 3rd and 4th graders and love this product. The students have a great time creating their books -- they love that they can make their own choices, using their own names, friends and family, pets, etc. -- and the stories are more personal and fun than any other book they have.

To get to print the stories and have them professionally bound is such a treat. We can make a group book and then save it in the classroom for all future classes to read.

The kids also want to make their own books to give to their grandparents for the holidays.

As their teacher, my favorite part is that they learn so much more vocabulary along the way. It's just such fun and the kids are really being immersed in a total reading and writing environment. Highly recommended!!

Think Adlibs...you are asked to contribute to a story and get to be creative. Then you read the chapter you've just worked on. I loved this so much. I ordered it to do with my daughter but she's in bed and I'm still playing with it.
Very educational. Fabulous gift for Christmas

As my daughter enjoys reading and writing stories, I thought this program would be fun. But to my disappointment, she didn't like it, as all it was is a fill in the blank program, and the program writes the story for you.

Like some of the other reviewers have said, all you do is fill in some one word answers in a story that's already written. Thought my child was going to get to do alot more creative writing.

This is NOT "Books By You!" This is "Books By John Lithgow!" The description is misleading. I thought this software would enable my daughter (age 9) to write and print her own books. NOT SO. Kids are simply filling in the blanks of provided stories. My daughter played with this for 20 minutes and hasn't touched it since. Absolutely UNINSPIRING! A waste of money.

Books by You no longer works. Knowledge Adventure says they were sued and can no longer sell it themselves. If you make and then try to publish a book, it won't work. It was once a great product, but now it's worthless.

Think twice before purchasing this software. We have had it about 3 years and the first time we printed a book it worked fine, but now, after my daughter spent a few hours creating the fill-in text for this book, it will not upload properly and there is no support on the Knowledge Adventure website. In fact, I called the support number which says it is open until 9 pm (Eastern Time) and I called at 7:50 pm and the recording not only says they are closed, but they will reopen on "Monday." Today is Tuesday and there are no holidays this week! It appears that there is no way to get support for using the software or printing the books. It was going to be a Christmas gift for my daughter and she was so excited. The publishing company, LuLu.com, no longer has the appropriate uploader for uploading the files for the books made with Books By You (and it took me over an hour with their Live Chat to finally get an answer on that). Your only option is to print the (PDF) document of your book on your own printer. If you're willing to only have that type of copy, you can get the software.

This was a nice idea, but there should have been more options to personalize the books. We did get one book printed out in paperback and it's a beautiful book. But again, my daughter who did this in the 4th grade felt that she would have liked to be able to edit the story more to show her personality. Perhaps it would be better for younger kids.

We purchased this software for our 8 year old and he loves it! He spent all Christmas day working on the computer writing different stories and editing them. I sat with him for over an hour writing several chapters and had a blast doing it! Reading through the finished story we wrote together was hilarious and we will be writing many more I am sure. It's a great educational tool because he learned several words like "enslave" that he didn't know. We look forward to ordering one of his future stories in hardback. I would recommend this software to anyone with a child who is an avid reader. Easy to use, easy to setup.