6/13/2023 0 Comments Epic books for![]() These figures tally the activity of paying subscribers as well as students who are accessing Epic in school. “The numbers are astounding to us, to be honest,” he says. Most recently, Donahue says, six million books were read in the month of March alone, and more than 250,000 titles are being read each day. Since Epic’s debut, more than 40 million books have been read on the service. Other notable features include an algorithm that makes personalized recommendations for kids based on their reading level and content preferences, and the ability to create personalized profiles (up to four per family) to keep track of reading materials individually within an account. Read-to-Me titles, audiobooks, and Spanish-language and Spanish/English bilingual books are part of the content mix. Content is curated by an in-house editorial team that receives input from Epic’s advisory board, which is composed of publishing and digital industry experts, including Joanna Cotler, former publisher of HarperCollins Children's Books award-winning author Jenni Holm and Tim Ditlow, former v-p and publisher of Listening Library/Random House, who is also Epic’s v-p of content. With Markosian, an Internet entrepreneur who had major success with social and mobile gaming company CrowdStar, Donahue, who was part of the original team at YouTube as v-p of content and head of marketing (pre-Google acquisition) notes, “We were enthusiastic and passionate about solving this problem.”Įpic carries more than 14,000 e-book titles from more than 100 publishers-including HarperCollins, Macmillan, Candlewick, Disney, Bellwether Media, and Eerdmans-and describes itself as “the world’s largest digital library for kids.” The focus is on providing unlimited access to high-quality content for children 12 and younger via a platform available on the Web, iOS, and Android devices, as well as Apple TV, for $4.99 per month. ![]() At that time, iBooks and Amazon “weren’t being directed toward children,” he explains, recalling his experiences seeking out titles for his daughter. Officially launched in January 2014 by Donahue and Suren Markosian, Epic was born from a desire to “make e-books more available to children online,” Donahue says. “We were up 400% last year and will probably see the same or more this year,” he notes. Epic cofounder Kevin Donahue shared exclusively with PW the latest statistics measuring the company’s performance. Regardless- they've lost our business, and I would recommend caution when allowing free use of this app with young children.Children’s e-book subscription service Epic, based in Redwood City, Calif., is one company that is bucking the naysaying trends. I expect these sorts of slips on utilities like Youtube kids, but I'd had higher hopes for a subscription based system. He has now begged us to delete the Epic app, and he's hesitant to self curate his own content using other resources. Needless to say, we had a shaken five year old in our bed all night. Our children are pretty good about self regulating content, but nothing else in the book would have suggested that level of graphic content. Last night our five year old was flipping through a lego book when he encountered a gory scene of Jack the Ripper as a Lego- mutilated corpse and blood included. Each time the offender has been graphic imagery. Unfortunately, we'll be canceling our subscription after our third run in with inappropriate content. Having three voracious readers, we were extremely happy to find a resources like Epic. The other books we have come across are very violent or graphic. I really think epic needs to monitor their books or retire their application. That let you know that they are seeing things that we don’t catch, but this was unacceptable considering the times. My seven-year-old caught this before I did. ![]() And on one page one of the boys has a pig on his shirt. Halfway through the book he noticed that all the kids who are the bullies were white. Really caught my sons attention and he was super excited to read it. For example: Book titled: how to deal with bullies superhero style. And recently since Covid and Black Lives Matter movement I have noticed more and more books suggesting racism or hatred. Several times now however I have noticed books that were not appropriate for my children. I like the idea of my kids being able to pull up a library that’s just for them with books at their level. I have a second grader and first grader who are both assigned reading time on this app. We’ve used this website three years in a row. ![]()
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