Aaron Shepard of Shepard Publications thinks that children's ebooks are being priced too high and has decided to offer his books on Kindle at a penny apiece. He has started with four books in the Storybooks series and promises to add more if these do well. What you give up, though, are any illustrations from the paper versions of the book. For some stories, I suspect this won't make a difference, although it would not work for books for toddlers. Each of these books has a specific theme, are generally written for ages 4-9 and range in size from 900 to 1500 words. (I'm all for long novels, but not children's bedtime stories!)Aaron's Storybook #1: The Legend of Lightning Larry
A cowboy with a huge smile, a gun that shoots bolts of light, and a hankering for lemonade takes on Evil-Eye McNeevil's outlaw gang. An original tall tale.
Aaron's Storybook #2: The Legend of Slappy Hooper
Slappy is the world's biggest, fastest, bestest sign painter, but he's too good -- his pictures keep coming to life. An American tall tale.
Aaron's Storybook #3: The Baker's Dozen
Van Amsterdam, the baker, is as honest as he can be -- but he may have something left to learn. A Saint Nicholas tale from Dutch colonial New York.
Aaron's Storybook #4: The Gifts of Wali Dad
Wali Dad, a humble grass-cutter, never asked for wealth-- so why can't he give it away? A tale of India and Pakistan.
When I did a search for Shepard Publications
in the Kindle store, I discovered that I had already bought a couple of books from them. This is the same publisher that has Skeeter: A Cat Tale and Pacific Avenue, by Anne L. Watson and Timothy Tolliver and the Bully Basher, by Aaron Shepard, all for a penny apiece in the Kindle store and previously mentioned in my blog. I'm only part way thru Skeeter, but it is a laugh-out-loud read (at least, if you have ever been owned by a cat). In addition to these, I discovered four more titles they've released recently, all children's books, it appears, of around 50 pages:The Monkey King: A Superhero Tale of China, Retold from The Journey to the West ($0.01)
The Songs of Power: A Finnish Tale of Magic, Retold from the Kalevala ($0.01)
The Mountain of Marvels: A Celtic Tale of Magic, Retold from The Mabinogion ($0.50)
The Magic Flyswatter: A Superhero Tale of Africa, Retold from the Mwindo Epic ($0.50)
