We had a blast at DEMO 2011. We were invited to present on a scholarship, thanks to Kauffman Foundation.

The DEMO team did a great great job with every single detail. The Press people were incredibly gracious.

Here is the video -

We got some great press too!

VentureBeat, Sept 14 – Demo: MeMeTales will make a mobile reader out of your kid

MeMeTales.com Gives Kids Access to More Stories, Launches the Story Platform at DEMO Fall 2011 – MarketWatch

MeMeTales and RRKidz set sights on book-apps for kids market | Mobile Industry | Mobile Entertainment

Demo: Lost in a maze with amazement – Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

Mobile Startups: Tip of the Iceberg, Say Venture Capitalists CIO.com

Moms on a Mission with Mobile Apps use tech to inspire, motivate, and educate families

Over the past few months, ever since we released our app, more than 80K stories have been read on our app!! That is awesome but I have been thinking really hard about why kids read. Why do some kids love to read and some not? And how do we get kids to start reading? How do they learn to start loving to read?

The answer? Very simple.
1. Give them a reason to read.
2. Have them read something they love.
3. Do not judge.

I need to tell you a little story -

It had been a crazy few weeks here! I (Maya) moved from Seattle to California. (Now we have an office in the SF Bay Area, Yeah!!), life is all over the place.

And then, before we knew it, it was time for me to got o Blogher! We drove out as a family and that was kind of crazy but a lot of fun. On the drive back we met a beautiful dog at a rest area. A beautiful dog called Sasha. We learned that Sasha is a work dog that works with kids at the Children’s Hospital, Sasha also participates in the “Reading with Rover” program.

“What? Reading Program? A dog?”, I said.

Well, ofcourse. It all made complete sense.

Which child would not love to read to a dog. And who else, but a dog is capable of never ever judging a child that reads?

Dogs help us create the perfect comfortable environment for reading. Kids LOVE dogs. What a wonderful concept. (there is a lot of information on the ReadWithRover.org site about why it works)

I have not yet tried it, but I am inspired to have my kids sit with my dog and read. I have a feeling my dog will love it too.

Have you ever tried to read with your dogs around? Do your kids ever read with your dogs or any animals?

Don’t forget to check out “Reading with Rover” Org.

Our Book of the Week is “Too Many Bananas” by Noni and illustrated by Angie & Upesh. Srigeri Srinivas is growing ripe and sweet bananas on his farm. He wants to sell all the bananas in the market but nobody is ready to buy the sweet and ripe bananas.  All of a sudden Srigeri Srinivas’s bananas are disappearing. Where are they going? What is happening to them? Find out in this story.

Book of the Week

Too Many Bananas

See more at memetales

After reading “Too Many Bananas” , we decided to make a “Table Mat” using a construction paper. kids were so excited to make this beautiful “Table Mat” and it turned out to be a great fun activity for kids.

What you’ll need: White Construction Paper, Scissor, Glue, Glitter Glue, Colored Tissue Paper.

Step 1: Let your kids cut out some strips on a white construction paper.

Step 2:Let your kids glue all the white strips as shown below to complete a table mat.

Step 3: Now, let them glue colored tissue paper as per your kids interest.

Step 4: Lastly, let your kids decorate with a glitter glue to make more table mat beautiful.

We love our colorful “Table Mat”. If you have been crafty with your kids, be it at home and read our book and share your experience with us.

Our Book of the Week is “Freeky” by Krishna and illustrated by Sayantan Halder. This is the story of a young peacock that wanted to change his appearance. This is a fun story that teaches children that pretending to be something we are not is never a good thing.

Book of the Week

Freeky

See more at memetales

After reading “Freeky” , we decided to make a “Peacock” using a construction paper. And it turned out to be a great fun activity for kids.

What you”ll need : Two White Construction Paper, One Blue Construction Paper, Scissor, Glue, Glitter Glue, Tissue Paper, Googly Eyes, Ice- Cream Stick.

Step 1: Let your kids cut out shape of a peacock on a blue construction paper.

Step 2: Now, let your kids fold two white construction paper as shown below.

Step 3: Let your kids staple both the folded white construction paper to form the feather.

Step 4: Let your kids glue the feathers to the body of the peacock together. Stick googly eyes too.

Step 5: For decoration, let your kids crush tissue papers and glue it on the peacock’s feather.

Step 6: Lastly, let your kids decorate the body of the peacock.

Step 7: To make it more beautiful, let them use glitter glue and glue ice- cream stick for the peacock’s legs.

Isn’t this a beautiful peacock? Do read our book and share your amazing experience with us. Keep reading and stay tuned for our Thursday’s blog.

Our Book of the Week is “Topsy Turvy” by Noni and illustrated by Angie & Upesh. Ever wondered how it would be to wake up to a world all upside down? This is a story of a boy who wakes up early in the morning and notices some changes in his room like – a little clock has grown very tall, an umbrella is twirling round and round, red and blue cap is making some sounds, fan has turned into big octopus, her sister is eating Dal and rice without any fuss,and a mouse is reading a news on the air. Just read this book to find out who does all this mess – a Magic Man??

Book of the Week

Topsy Turvy

See more at memetales

After reading “Topsy Turvy” , we decided to make an “Octopus” using a toilet paper roll. And it turned out to be a great fun activity for kids.

What you’ll need : Green Construction Paper, Toilet Paper Roll, Glue, Googly Eyes, Small Red Pom-Poms,Scissor & Marker.

Step 1: Let your kids cut out a Toilet paper roll in half  with scissor.

Step 2: Let your kids draw a line on a green construction paper and cut it.

Step 3: Now, let them glue green construction paper all over the toilet paper roll.

Step 4: The kids loved to glue googly eyes and pom -poms for nose.

Step 5: Again, let them cut out small strips on green construction paper to for Octopus body.

Step 6: Lastly, let them glue green strips from inside the Toilet paper roll.

Step 7: And finally, let your kids draw a smile with black marker on face of Octopus.

Isn’t this a cute and easy Octopus to make out of a Toilet paper roll? Read our book and share your experience with us. And have a good weekend!!!

Our Book of the Week is “Vayu, The Wind” by Madhuri Pai and illustrated by Rijuta Ghate. Vayu means “wind” in Hindi. While, the wind cannot be seen or heard, it does end up doing a lot. A “wind” can  – makes a hot milk cold to drink, After hot water bath your body feels cold because of wind,  a wind can gently brushes your face, Flower gently falls from the tree because of wind,  you can smell sweets because of wind, a wind can crashes a glass on the ground,  Find out more things – what a wind can does??

Book of the Week

Vayu, The Wind

See more at memetales t

After reading “Vayu, The Wind” , we thought of making a “Tree” with colored tissue papers.  And, this activity came out to be one of the kids interesting activity.

What you’ll need : White & Brown Construction Paper, Colored Tissue Papers, Scissor, Glue,Pencil.

Step 1: All Mommy, can help kids to draw a tree by making dots before, and then let them draw a line on top of a tree on a brown construction paper

Step 2: Let your kids cut out the shape of a tree.

Step 3: Let your kids glue brown tree on white construction paper.

Step 4: Now, let them glue colored tissue paper by crushing them first.

Step 5: Lastly, let them glue all the tissue paper all over the tree.

Step 6: Let them glue some tissue paper near the roots so it feels that some flower falls gently form the tree because of wind.

So, here’s a cute “Tree” with colored flowers. Read our book and share your experiences with us. And, we will be back on Thursday!

Memetales provides a publishing platform for publishers that allows them to share and market their own books online. Our platform at Memetales provides the following advantages for publishers – reach a large niche audience easily and within a short time, instant value addition to their books by the context and contributions by the community, viral tools such as embeds, badges and connectivity to Facebook/Twitter, etc. for more effective marketing and support for selling their books in additional formats.

Additionally, our Memetales’ publishing platform lets anyone (Parents or even Kids) instantly publish their stories online and to various mobile devices (Iphone and Ipad) in 3 simple steps. You can keep your books private (so that only can you enjoy them on your device) or sell them online through our reader app.

Here’s a quick demo by Maya Bisineer on how to publish the books online directly via the Memetales platform.

Memetales Publishing Platform Demo

Our Book of the Week is “Thumbelina” by Hans Christen Anderson. This is a story of a fairy tale named “Thumbelina” -  a little girl who is as small as a thumb. This book is all about her adventures – how a giant toad kidnaps her and how she befriends a mouse and how she agrees to marry with the mole, and how she runs to help the bird and how they fly together and saves her life with the mole.  Find out for yourself what happens when she meets  the princes?

Book of the Week

Thumbelina

See more at memetales

After reading “Thumbelina” , we decided to make a “Mouse” using a boiled egg. And it turned out to be a great fun activity for kids.

What you’ll need: Boiled Egg, Blue and Yellow Pom- Poms, Chenille Stems, Glue, Googly Eyes, Beads, Construction Paper.

Step 1: Take a boiled egg and let your kids glue yellow pom-poms for Mouse’s feet and blue pom-poms for Mouse’s ears.

Step 2: Let your kids glue googly eyes and chenille stems for tail to make the tail and eye of the Mouse.

Step 3: Lastly, add a bead to make the Mouse’s nose and glue the Mouse’s tooth.

A cute “Mouse” is ready in no time. Do read our Fairy tale book “Thumbelina” and share your experience with us . We will be back on Thursday!

“Memetales” is a place where kids along with parents can read story books together. Through the “Memetales” platform, parents and kids can share and celebrate the experience of  reading books. “Memetales” provides kids of all ages with the best children’s book collection in a very innovative way. Furthermore, the Memetales publishing platform also allows anyone (includes Moms, Dads) instantly publish their stories online in a very simple way. Kids receive stickers and are rewarded with games as they read books through Memetales.

Recently, Memetales launched their I-phone App to enable kids to read their favorite story books anywhere and anytime. Parents don’t need to worry about carrying their kid’s books to keep them engaged.

Here’s a demo of the Iphone App by Maya Bisineer, who is the founder of Memetales. The demo will help you understand the various features that are available on the Iphone App.

Our Book of the Week is “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” by Aesop. This is a story that teaches kids never to lie to anybody because nobody believes a liar…even when he’s telling the truth. This is exactly what happens in this story. A shepherd boy who wanted to amuse himself starts fooling all the villagers by screaming Wolf… Wolf… There’s Wolf chasing the sheep. And all the villagers came up to save the boy and his sheep a couple of times only to realize that there was no wolf in sight and they were being fooled. Find out for yourself what happens next when the actual Wolf comes?   The story is accompanied by wonderful illustrations and the mobile version has engaging narration.

Book of the Week

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

See more at memetales

After reading “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” book, we decided to make a “Sheep” with  construction paper and Styrofoam balls. And it turned out to be a fun activity for kids.

What you’ll need : White & Black Construction, Butter Knife, Scissor, Glue, Marker, Small Styrofoam Balls.

Step 1: Let your kids draw Sheep’s face on a black color construction paper and cut it out with scissor.

Step 2: Then, let your kids draw the body of the Sheep with a marker on a white construction paper and cut it.

Step 3: Similarly, let your kids draw legs and tail of the Sheep on a black color construction paper and cut it.

Step 4: Let your kids glue all these body parts to complete the sheep.

Step 5: Now, let your kids cut some Styrofoam balls in half with butter knife.

Step 6: Finally, let your kids glue all the Styrofoam balls on sheep’s body and glue googly eyes and button for nose.

A cute Sheep is ready for kids to play with.

Read our book and make sure to help your kids understand to never lie to anybody. Enjoy and do share your experiences with us!