ABC Go and the Paper Book: Bringing Stories to Life
I was born in the Soviet Union — a time and place where every parent had to work. I remember staying home alone, surrounded by books and encyclopedias. They were beautiful and colorful, filled with fascinating illustrations. But there was one problem. I couldn’t read.
I would flip through those books endlessly, opening the pages again and again, wishing I could understand the words and dive deeper into those wonderful worlds. But the stories remained locked away, just out of reach.
This memory stayed with me.
Years later, when we started working on projects to help children learn, this very concept came back to me. I knew exactly how it felt to look at a book and not be able to fully experience it. And I wanted to solve that.
About ten years ago, my friend Eugene Mayevski wrote a beautiful fairy tale book called “Tales of the Strange Forest”. He created it for his own children, and it became a magical story not just for kids, but for adults too.
When it came time to test our idea, we chose his book as our first project. We created a version enhanced with AR technology. It was simple and purposeful. When a child pointed the camera at a page, the narrator began to read the story aloud. That’s it — no flashy games or distractions. Just pure, magical storytelling.
Yevgeny insisted on keeping this experience simple. He wanted the focus to be on the words, on listening and understanding the story. And we agreed. This was about connecting children with books in a way that feels natural and meaningful.
And so, our first AR-enhanced book was born. It combined the timeless beauty of paper pages with the power of technology to make stories accessible and alive — even for those who couldn’t yet read.
