The Netflix of Children’s Books?

With so many good books available, many readers itch to have them at our fingertips as soon as possible. Libraries of e-books are making that happen with monthly subscription models. Now, the same is available for children’s books.

Epic launched a service that offers children 12 and under a monthly library of more than 2,000 children’s books available on the iPad. The idea is to encourage kids to use the tablets for something other than games. It does have game-like elements, such as badges and ratings, but there are no message boards or social media elements, keeping the focus on making it a safe and enclosed space for reading.

Sound familiar? Epic’s launch comes weeks after Oyster, an e-book service aimed at adults for $9.95/month, was crowned the Netflix of e-books. Amazon also has Kindle Free Time Unlimited that allows families to have unlimited access to e-books, movies, TV shows, educational apps and games aimed at 3-8-year-olds, and the parental controls feature that lets parents set time limits on kids’ various uses of the tablet.

So how well stocked is Epic? The co-founder Kevin Donahue, a former Googler and YouTube veteran, said that the service has more than 2,000 titles to start, and that he expects this number to grow. Currently, the service offers popular titles such as Olivia, the Berenstain Bears, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. The books arrive instantly through streaming, and the service also provides features like personalized recommendations and off-line access.

The service itself is only available for Apple products, (Android is coming!) for $9.99/month.

Here is Epic’s product video to show you more about how to access their library of children’s books:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2e9TUMnHFM