How a picture book is checked
Count the calf's hooves. Five, and our own check had passed it. Even the best AI still paints extra limbs, and asked to count them, gives the number there ought to be. This film shows how every StorySparkle picture book is checked: every character counted, each hand, foot and hoof; a page that gets it wrong painted again; and the story's words set in real type, never painted into the picture. Checked, not hoped for.
Subtitles
The film is in English. Read along in your language — or switch subtitles off.
This is a page from one of our picture books.
Count the calf's hooves.
Five.
Our own check had passed it.
It's a known weakness of AI.
Even the very best still paint extra limbs,
on animals, humans and robots alike.
And asked to count them, they give the number
the poor calf would have had in another, luckier life.
One of us caught it.
Now every character is counted:
each hand, foot and hoof.
This monkey had three hands.
Its page was painted again.
Children are little detectives.
If the story says red boots and the picture
shows blue ones, they will tell you.
Loudly.
Ours have caught us out more than once.
Much of how we check a page today, we owe to them.
We're parents too.
So here's our promise to every child:
no extra arms, legs, hands or feet.
The story's words are never painted into the picture.
That's the easy way.
But our early pages misspelt words,
teaching children words that don't exist.
Not good enough, when they're learning English the right way.
So the words are set in real type.
Checked, not hoped for.
That calf is in our Picture
Books gallery, with four hooves.
We counted.
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