Book Creator

Book Creator is a digital book-making tool with limitless options, suitable for students of all grade levels. It's available for both iPad and the web (including Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge). Students join the class library using a code, and then any books they create can be accessed by the teacher and added to the class library to share with classmates. Before students create their first book, it's helpful for them to read the basic tutorial. They then tap the plus sign or New Book icon on the main screen, choose a book shape or template, and then tap the plus icon to add photos, videos, and typed words to the cover page, first page, and so on. Simply swipe to move content around the page and resize or rotate it as desired. Under the "i" tab, students will find many options for adjusting or deleting items. Every time they want to add something, they just tap the plus sign again. Make the book simple, or take advantage of a large number of fancy bells and whistles. For example, a predictive drawing feature helps create professional-looking graphics based on the user's input. Once students are done, books can be shared in tons of ways: by email, AirDrop, Google Drive, Dropbox, printing, publishing to iBooks, and more. 

Book Creator offers a number of features to make it widely accessible. It's available in 10 languages. If your browser is set to one of the supported languages, Book Creator automatically appears in that language. There are options for text-to-speech, closed captions, screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and more to support learners of different abilities. And multiple users can work on the same book across multiple devices, which can support remote learning. There's also a large support library. And, there's lots of how-to support to show teachers and students how to use the Book Creator tool -- including example books, lesson plan ideas, trainings, and webinars.

Full disclosure: Common Sense Education and Book Creator are creating free digital citizenship books that will be available on the Book Creator site. Our initial rating and review of Book Creator was completed prior to this partnership. We also maintain our editorial independence, and don't allow this relationship to impact any updates to this rating or review.

Storytelling and book creation are common creative tasks in classrooms, and there's no better option than Book Creator. Its ease of use and flexibility with media and publishing make it perfect for empowering students to create and share their work. With guidance, even students in early elementary school grades can use this tool to produce and publish their own simple books or comics with images, videos, and audio. And, given the options for adding images and multimedia, even students who are ready for more challenge won't feel limited. Plus, book creation itself gets students using critical-thinking and organization skills as they brainstorm, plan, and make creative decisions about their books.

Once they start to compose pages, students can learn how multimedia elements help them tell their story or communicate information more effectively. Students can practice their writing skills and feel pride in translating their thinking into book form. Of course, teachers can create books for students too. This offers teachers another way to communicate key class information (like norms and procedures), or to collect and share student learning and accomplishments. Truly, it's a super-versatile, accessible tool that offers pricing levels to work with varied classroom needs and circumstances.