Imagine sitting in front of a group of 20 squirmy kids (or even one squirmy kid at home) as you hold up a beautiful picture book, hoping they will enjoy the story you are about to share with them. You say the book’s title and author out loud, and suddenly there’s a burst of music. As you begin reading, the kids’ eyes widen and their smiles grow as the story leaps off the page through sound effects and music designed to match the action on every page.
This is the scene we in the Youth department have been experiencing these past several months as we’ve tested out a new library resource — and now we are thrilled to bring that resource, Novel Effect, to our patrons! Find more information and step-by-step instructions below.
Mount Prospect Public Library cardholders now have free access to a Premium Subscription of Novel Effect, an app combining children’s story books with speech recognition. When you read aloud from real books, Novel Effect responds to your voice at the right moment, adding interactive music and sound effects to spark your child’s imagination and enrich your experience reading together. Novel Effect is perfect for educators, parents, and caregivers alike to engage and delight young readers and inspire a lifelong love of reading.
Activate your Novel Effect Premium Pass by downloading the app and logging into the library’s web resources. Here’s how:
- Download the Novel Effect app from the App Store or Google Play on your mobile device.
- Follow the prompts to set up the app and then create a login by clicking on “Sign up for free” when prompted. Enter your name and email address and create a password.
- On your mobile device, access our MPPL Web Resources page via your web browser. If accessing this page away from the library, you will need to login with your library card number and password, which is the last four digits of the phone number associated with your library card (unless you have changed it).
- Find Novel Effect in the list of resources and click “Access Novel Effect.”
- At the bottom of the page that opens, click the “tap here” link to activate your pass. This will reopen your Novel Effect app and activate your Premium Pass. If the app does not refresh, simply close it and reopen.
- Click “continue” to enjoy over 300 books with interactive music and sound effects.
- Reauthentication with your library card is required every 90 days. Repeat steps 3 thru 5 to reauthenticate your Premium Pass.
