[15] In 1989 Dutch electronics hardware manufacturer Phillips happened to observe the Living Books prototype while on a tour of the Broderbund offices, and offered the company $500,000 to produce a title that would run on a new television set-top box they were in the process of developing.

[33] Proposed product ideas that were ultimately unsuccessful included adaptions of Between the Lions, Eager Ogre's Pet Show, Nickelodeon's Rugrats, Sesame Street, and Sing Along: Maggie's Farm, among others, as well as a Story Book Maker title in 1996.

[11] The New Kid on the Block, which presented a collection of 18 funny poems by poet Jack Prelutsky, allowed players to click on the words to reveal a representative animation of the noun or verb, turning the program into a "living dictionary".

[92] The kits also contained 'A Book Lover Approaches the Computer' articles that addressed key concerns of parents and teachers, technical tips, a curriculum matrix, a thematic unit, and classroom activities.

[102] At the American Booksellers Association convention, Alberto Vitale, head of Random House Publishing (then owned by Advance Publications) and Dr. Seuss book rights holder, saw a demo of Just Grandma and Me and approached the team.

[87] The new Living Books took over research and development, manufacturing and marketing associated with the creation of its products, which were distributed through Broderbund and Random House' respective channels under an affiliated label arrangement[105] for Windows and Mac.

[36] From November 1995 – December 1996, Bobby Yarlagadda joined Living Books as VP and its first CFO, leading IT and Business Development groups; during this time he doubled the capacity for content production by setting up outsourcing contracts with suitable vendors.

[128] Broderbund's success allowed it to continue marketing to a mass consumer base, publishing software for entertainment, education, and home management; the company also offered a creatively free environment for its programmers who were able to push the boundaries of computer programming through titles like the CD-ROM series Living Books.

[52] However, Stellaluna, a story by Janell Cannon about a young fruit bat who becomes separated from her mother, varied from the source material through its language, visual perspectives, images, and animations which affected the orientation, social distance, and tone of the experience.

[8] Geisel expressed initial concerns about the quality and wanted Dr. Seuss adaptions to be "absolutely line-proof to the books", though he relented that her husband would be "enchanted" by the "interactive personal creative possibilities" that the new form of communication offered, and was supportive of the "hidden learning process".

[160][161] Closed-captioned CD-ROMs were virtually non-existent by 1996 and there wasn't an organized effort to encourage multimedia companies to provide subtitles for plot-intensive products; Living Books mostly circumvented this by displaying the story text on screen.

[137] Schon suggested that despite the children's software segment of the interactive multimedia industry growing by 18 percent in 1996, with total revenues near $500 million, there were too many publishers to share the target market, and too many products fighting for the "very limited shelf space".

[190] Under the new arrangement, Random House would continue to sell Living Books via their bookstore channels, help Broderbund acquire content licences for future titles, while royalties would be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Random House would also sell its minority stakes in Humongous Entertainment and Knowledge Adventure, while HarperColllins sold off both its adult and children's operations; meanwhile, Simon & Schuster "readjusted" by cutting staff and cancelling titles.

[206] After two years of negotiation, in August 1998 Brazilian publisher Editora Delta secured a contract to translate the series of 18 books into Brazilian-Portuguese (as "Livros Vivos"); the company had previously been known as producer of the encyclopaedia "Koogan Houaiss" and the Mundo da Criança collection.

[229] Mantle reached out to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and succeeded in acquiring the Living Books CD-ROM rights and assets from John Bartlett the VP, Licensing Consumer Products and Solutions, who used to work at The Learning Company and knew the series.

[237] These educator-focused Classroom Activities Guide were available for $2.99 as an in-app purchase, and tied each storybook to reading, arts, math, social studies and other subjects inspired by the narrative and adhering to Common Core State Standards.

"[280] Hyper Nexus noted that Living Books' reputation of ease and functionality led to consumers testing other Broderbund programs and the company achieving a strong market domination, a phenomenon they had earlier observed with 1984's The Print Shop.

[6] Mickey W. Mantle, president and CEO, Wanderful reflected ""Living Books has such an amazing legacy, remembered by children, trusted by parents and embraced by the educational community" through "elegant, interactive-rich...production values".

[293] Both companies combined the authors' illustrations and stories with digital activities and were guided by a narrator—each screen began with a brief animation followed by a narrator describing the action; after the conclusion of each page, the scene became an "interactive mural with hot buttons" the player could click.

[296][297] Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times criticized Disney for contracting their games to independent studios like Media Station, deeming the series "a mere imitation of Broderbund's Living Books format".

[205] Multiple Perspectives on Difficulties in Learning Literacy and Numeracy asserts that the software had been "cleverly crafted" so that play could not commence until after the page had been read with each word highlighted, offering a narrative context for the children.

One 2004 study in which Grade 1 and 2 Spanish/Hebrew speaking immigrant children playing the English version for 2 months, recognised and pronounced 70% of the story's words, suggesting that the game offered a "massive and effort-free 'incidental learning'" experience.

[111] The New York Times wrote that the educational content seemed like an afterthought, adding that they were "horrified" that Arthur's Computer Adventure activity 'Deep Dark Sea', instead of teaching children world geography or ocean life, was "pure entertainment" game.

[328] An information sheet published by British Educational Communications and Technology Agency said the series "work[ed] well with children who are unresponsive and who avoid conversation, as they become involved with the combination of sound effects, spoken text and visual display".

[137] Donald R Roberts, chairman of Stanford University's Department of Communication, felt there were important "social dimensions" involved in the parent-child reading process that couldn't be replicated through a digital book, including contact and a sense of security.

"[48] Len Unsworth's paper "Reframing research and literacy pedagogy relating to CD narratives" writes that Stellaluna was a "very significantly change" from the "somewhat serious tone" of the book due to an "almost a slapstick approach to frivolous humour".

[92] MacUser felt that Living Books and Edmark's Early Learning House overcame the issue of exclusively Caucasian characters in younger children's programs through the use of animal and friendly monster protagonists.

[367] It felt the titles were "charming", but lacked "real Bible education"; commenting that their review by a multidenominational, ecumenical panel during developed led to The Story of Creation being "watered down" to "just a bunch of singing and dancing [and] cute animations".

[311] Of the Wanderful re-releases of Little Ark, Children's Technology Review wrote "[these] bible stories that come to life, in the context of a solid 'Living Book' shell" due to their "effective language immersion experience", and suggested their use of slapstick humor "could actually make religion fun.