During the years before wireless internet connections and “touch screen technology” were even conceived – at least outside of “The Jetsons” – children had to get both their educational and entertainment fixes through either televised programming or manual means like paper books or tangible board games and puzzles. The most advanced example of the former on that short list would probably be books that came with built-in sound banks on small chips, meant to either narrate books aloud or to insert sound effects for young children, so kids might get a leg up on literacy alongside school lessons.
Now in a society which is overloaded by uni-purpose tech, the purity of children’s resources for fun learning might seem lost. This is where Mibblio comes to the rescue.
An app currently in the middle of a soft launch for iPad but already named a “New and Newsworthy App” by the iTunes App Store, Mibblio is lauded as the “first musically interactive storybook app of its kind,” as described on the app’s official Facebook page. A concept nurtured and developed by a diverse team of four people, Sammy Rubin (Co-Founder, Creative Director), David Leiberman (Co-Founder, Business Director), Matt Blanchard (Technology Director) and Savannah Fletcher (Creative Assistant), Mibblio is a platform app that functions as a library of sorts, meant to house various smaller applications, appropriately named “mibblets.” Each mibblet is a different story-song and currently the Mibblio team has already released a wide array of choices for children to read, with new ones being developed all the time.
The combination of familiarity and fresh learning stimulation that both parents and kids will see in Mibblio, is what makes its potential so limitless. The stories transformed by Mibblio include some timeless pieces that have always been set to a song, so to speak, like “Wheels on the Bus” and “Old MacDonald,” among other classic melodies. The rest are completely unique creations, like “Mille and Her Curling Whirling Hair” in both word and tune, devised from scratch and, each mibblet, classic or unique, is brought together through the talents of highly regarded and imaginative authors, illustrators, and musicians. Two of the musicians featured in some of the mibblet music tracks include Grammy nominated mandolinist Andy Statman (of the Andy Statman Trio) and Grammy winning percussionist, Marty Beller (of They Might Be Giants.) Rubin himself is also a large contributor to many of the arrangements of each mibblet’s score.
Upon download of the app, users are prompted with the ability to scroll through the total list of mibblets and are permitted to download one for free. The rest are in-app purchases. The home screen for all of the mibblets brings up a window that primarily shows the story’s illustrations and framed around that, are an array of colorful buttons and keys and swipe-able mini menus of different musical instrument selections. On the right are options for sets of different percussion, displayed in image form and underneath that is a second swipe-able menu of strings that can be “strummed” or individually “plucked” and play notes from tunings for instruments like the ukulele, guitar, banjo, and harp.
Running along the bottom of the screen are rainbow colored keys that will play the sound of whatever instrument is highlighted directly above and on the left, the instrument buttons shown are designated to the recorded music that plays in the background during the reading of the story. Kids can insert and remove various combinations of any of the instruments playing so that they can hear any and all parts played from start to finish either together or alone. For the music teachers out there: that’s early exposure to orchestration and arrangement for you!
The screen layout is very vibrant and designed well for the exploratory curiosity expected of young children. Leiberman and Rubin designed Mibblio not only to be visually appealing but to be inherently beneficial to kids on a multi-educational level. Exposure to both word and sound together can challenge the two sides of the brain in ways that one or the other alone cannot. Further assurance for parents comes with the founders’ mutual credentials in education and music – showing that Mibblio isn’t meant to be a “digital babysitter.”
Mibblio itself is also a tech and publishing startup company, in addition to being the app’s title. The company’s overall focus is on creating interactive children’s books –not only for iPad but other mobile devices as well.
You can get Mibblio for iPad now for free. In-app purchases for additional mibblets are $2.99.
To learn more about Mibblio and keep informed about new mibblets, company developments or to reach out the Sammy and the rest of the Mibblio team, visit Mibblio.com.
Check out the short intro video below:
Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1
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