Category: Kalley’s Machine

Kalley's Machine Won Some Awards!

carriealexander Good Stories, Kalley's Machine No Comments

Kalley’s Machine Plus Cats had a whole bucket full of love poured on top of her interactive little head this past December.  Our app was like a sweaty little kid in the backyard on a really hot summer day, and then Jinny Gudmundsen, Rob Ford, Jennie B and some wonderful person named Kirkus Reviews  turned on the sprinkler.

USA TodayJinny Gudmundsen is the author of iPad Apps for Kids For Dummies, and the editor of the famous website Tech with Kids,  which declared Kalley’s Machine one of the 20 Best Kids Apps of 2014!!! Jinny is a nationally recognized expert on Kids Tech, and writes on that subject for a little newspaper called USA Today, which you may never have heard of but which we were PRETTY STOKED to be mentioned in, people!

This is just one of the many kind things that the estimable Jinny Gudmundsen said about Kalley’s Machine:  “Kalley’s Machine Plus Cats showcases a creative inventor who happens to be a young girl. It sends a powerful message to children–especially little girls–about thinking outside of the box to solve problems. By demonstrating ingenious engineering skills that would make Rube Goldberg proud, Kalley models outstanding problem-solving instincts and may motivate readers to draw similar machines. “

Well, and not only that. Jinny Gudmundsen also named Kalley’s Machine one of USA Today’s 10 Top Kids Apps of 2014!  I already tried to make it clear to you people that Jinny knows way more about this stuff than you do, so if you’re about to say something like “well, what does she know?  then just remember what I told you.  She’s the expert, not you.

Kirkus StarBest of 2014 Book AppsOK.  Here’s a fun little exercise.  Go get like five books off of your bookcase.  I’m doing it, too.  I will be right back.

Ok I’m back, and I only got two.  Both of my books here have a list of people in the front few pages who have read them, and who said nice things about them.  They’re called “reviewers”.  Now take your books and look at the front of them.  I bet one of those guys who reviewed your book is named “Kirkus”. And I bet that guy wrote the very most awesome stuff in that whole list, right?  Well, that same guy Kirkus totally reviewed Kalley’s Machine and he gave it a STAR!!! Do you even have any idea what that means?!  Have you ever even heard  of a KIRKUS STAR?!!  Probably not, because you never won one!! AND our new friend Kirkus (we here at Rocketwagon like to call him “Kirk” for short) also put us on this list he makes every year called Best Book Apps of 2014 !

mFWA AwardKalley’s Machine Plus Cats also won an mFWA Award. Don’t know what that is? I didn’t either. But my husband does. Jon says it’s pretty much the hugest honor you can get in the interactive agency world. And he’s flipping out about that one.

Kalley’s Machine is also a finalist for a ‘Cybils Award’, which aims to recognize children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose work “combines the highest literary  merit and popular appeal”.  FOR SERIOUS!!  Highest literary merit and popular appeal!!  I am not making this stuff up!! You totally thought I was and you were SO WRONG!!

We have the mysterious “Jennie B” to thank for our Cybils nomination.  We think we know who our secret benefactress is, but I do believe that I am supposed to keep my mouth shut about that and so I will.

So there you go, this is my update. And before you PM me so as to gently explain that “Kirkus” is not really that guy’s first name, I will just let you in on the little secret that I already know that.  I think I may have been in the house too long recently.

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The Joy Of Not Having To Explain

carriealexander App Development, Family Business, Kalley's Machine 3 Comments

I was desperately trying to get my kids out the door of a friend’s house the other day. We were all having so much fun, but  I had to get home to attempt some “social marketing.” Just as we were about to leave, I took out my phone and my friend asked if she and her kids could see Kalley’s Machine, our family’s first interactive story. Well, Ok, I guess.

Watching people react to Kalley’s Machine, for me, is very similar to watching them look at our family photo in the church directory a few years ago.  When the church decided to do a photo directory, Jon happened to be in his “wads of cash”  phase, where he held up money in every SINGLE picture that anyone took of him.  Normally, he just posed with whatever cash he had in his pockets. Picture a white guy trying to look gangsta by holding up two dollars, while posing with a bride and groom. It was like that. All the time. But given the opportunity of an Olan Mills church photo shoot, he stopped at the bank to get ninety singles and a ten to wrap around them (because it was ‘all about the Hamiltons’). The bewildered lady taking our picture had to ask him several times to move the cash out of the baby’s face.

Later, when the church directory was published, there was quite a range of reactions to the “A” section:  awkward silence, concern (“Um, Carrie, why is Jon is holding up money in your church picture?”), mild amusement, and occasionally, delight.  We really just did it to make something mundane a little more colorful. But it also had the interesting side effect of tuning us in to kindred spirits who shared our opinion that church directory photos are a wonderfully unexplored medium for self-expression.

We’ve been trying to rethink our priorities as a family the last few years. And in light of those priorities, we’re experimenting with our lifestyle to see if we can shape it more instead of letting it shape us. RocketWagon is part of that experiment. We want to make meaningful stuff and spend more time together. We want our kids to learn some real-world artistic and business skills by being involved, even at their young ages.

However, experiments fail. We may find out sometime in the near future that we have spent an exorbitant amount of time, not on a financially viable business, but on a hobby.  We love the idea of paying the bills by selling something that we have made together, but we may end up rudely awakened from that dream.  Sometimes we wonder if the reason we don’t see many other people doing this is that it simply doesn’t work. Sometimes we wonder what on earth we are doing. And it’s a little scary.

That’s why it was so refreshing the other day when I pulled out my phone, showed it to my friend, and didn’t even have to explain.  She got it.  Her face lit up.  I didn’t have to tell her why this little interactive story is part of a bigger dream. She understood because she has a similar dreams.  We may be crazy.  But it’s good to know that we are not alone.

It makes me wonder what her church directory picture looks like.

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