This is so cool!
8-year-old Nicholas Buamah created an augmented reality app, giving users the option to listen to the audio version of his animated book series, Kayla & Kyle: The Walking Dictionaries, Black Enterprise reports.
In December 2018, Nicholas released the first volume of his series entitled “Election Day”. The book became an instant fan favorite because it helps younger children build their vocabulary. Just a few months later, in April 2019, Kayla & Kyle The Walking Dictionaries: Election Day was added to the Library of Congress catalog. A huge accomplishment for young Nicholas.
Now he’s expanding his offerings with the new app. Users can listen to the audio version of the storybooks and simultaneously watch the illustrations come to life as they follow along. The app helps children pronounce and sound out various words and includes several games for children to play.
Nicholas’ mother Danielle said that the initial series was inspired by her process of helping her son with his vocabulary. “I developed the character of Kayla when Nicholas was younger to help teach him expanded vocabulary. After being praised by his first-grade teacher for using the word ‘collaborate’ during his first week of school, I asked Nicholas what he thought about writing a book to help his friends expand their vocabularies. He thought it was a great idea, as long as one of the main characters could be a male figure, and that’s when he created Kyle,” she said.
The success of the book and app has been pretty instant. The Georgia native has been featured on The Steve Harvey Show, Good Day Philadelphia, and it received an honor from The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg. Nicholas has also created a nonprofit, Books Without Borders-GHANA, so he can help donate books to libraries in schools throughout the country of Ghana, starting in May 2020.
The young author hopes to one day have his books sold in major retailers like Walmart and Target and would love to create a cartoon based on his series. The Kayla & Kyle Walking Dictionaries app is available on all Android and iOS devices.
Congratulations Nicholas! We wish you continued success.
Photo Courtesy of Blackbusiness.com