Local Artists Create Digital Fun for Kids

If you have a smart phone or an iPad, chances are good that your children have had a digital reading experience. Downloaded in seconds, book apps are easily read in bed at night, or used for a quick hit of entertainment for your kids when you're trying to get something done or perhaps finish a restaurant meal.

The library of choices is growing. From literary classics like Alice in Wonderland and the Cat in the Hat, to newer books created only in app form, more authors and publishers are producing enhanced digital versions of their stories.

Dan Wetzel, a Bedford Hills based artist, animator and illustrator, is one such author. He recently adapted his 2009 children’s picture book, Being Benny, into a book app just released on iTunes.

“It extends the book experience,” Wetzel said of the app published by his animation studio, Purple Sneakers—named for a comic strip he created as a college student—and produced by ArtGig Studio, a Pleasantville-based web development company. “I wanted kids to have fun and learn how to use their imaginations,” he said.

Many kids will relate to the app’s main character, Benny, a mischievous kid who channels his energies to cope with rainy day boredom. As children swipe through the story from screen to screen, they witness Benny envisioning himself as a tree, a car, a bird and a pie—ultimately cheering himself up through his own imagination.

The app offers children the option to read to themselves or have the story narrated.

Since the artwork was already completed, the process of making the app only took about a month, said Matt Kicinksi, who founded . He and Wetzel previously worked together at a software company and their collaborative relationship made it easy, he said.

“We do all kinds of web-based projects—from working with jazz musicians to pharmaceutical companies—but doing projects for children comes naturally," said Kicinski, a father of two. “It’s amazing how quickly kids adapt to new technology, and apps have great potential for teaching.”

With the first version of Benny already available online, the sky’s the limit for even more interaction, they said, noting future adaptations could include mazes, games or a digital coloring book.

When asked if they thought books in app form would replace printed books, Kicinski, a Yonkers native and graduate, said he didn’t think so.

“On a recent rainy day, my five-year-old son went from playing the Wii to using an iPhone to using my laptop, and I realized you do have to mix it up. I don’t think books can be replaced, but the chance to engage kids in a new way isn’t bad,” he said, adding his firm is working on a new app called “Shake a Phrase,” which aims to teach kids age 9–12 vocabulary and parts of speech.

For Wetzel, who began his career selling his own cartoons for two cents a piece to his second-grade classmates in his hometown of New Paltz, NY, books in app form are another way to entertain.

“I think if something is imaginative, kids gravitate toward it,” he said. “The app gives kids a way to enhance their experience with my story.”

The app was entirely produced in Westchester, with the voice of Benny provided by Brandon Ferrante, a Thornwood resident and student at the Rosehill Music Academy, owned by the family of Wetzel’s wife, Amber Wetzel. Dino Covelli provided the voice of Grandpa and the music was composed and recorded by Wetzel’s brother-in-law, Adam Colangelo. The print version of Being Benny is available at the in Mt. Kisco.

For more information on the Being Benny app, click here.

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