Thanks to Justin Chanda for the heads-up on an article in The Atlantic which prompt me to buy an iPad book called The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Kudos to Moonbot Studios and author William Joyce. I LOVE this app.

This app is part storybook, part game, and part animation. Wonderful writing and animation, plus the interactive bits are well-integrated and enhance the story rather than distract from it. A question I posted in Twitter a while back prompted much discussion on Twitter and Google+ about what exactly makes a children's ebook (vs a game), and I'm nearly finished compiling people's comments into an article...I definitely have to mention Moonbot's book app!

Anyway, the story's about a book-obsessed fellow who gets swept away by a storm and ends up in a country house filled with bookish fun. See the trailer above for more info.

Simon & Schuster is publishing a book based on the app/film, and Dreamworks is coming out with a movie in 2012.

Related links:

How to Build the Pixar of the iPad Age in Shreveport, Louisiana

An Ex-Pixar Designer Creates Astounding Kids' Book On iPad

William Joyce

Thought-provoking video showing a baby who tries to interact with a print magazine the same way as she does with an iPad.

I'm curious, though. To you parents out there with babies AND iPads: is this consistent with your own experience?

Sketch Club app iTunes link

My Sketch Club profile

Easy to use and to upload. What I like most about this app: the Sketch Club community. Fun to see the wide range of artist experience levels, plus some artists include screenshots of their works-in-progress as well as videos. Here's my test video, drawing a quickie dragon:

I've started up an "add your own listing" directory on Google+ of kidlit / story app developers, for those interested. Click the image above or the link below:

http://bit.ly/GP-kidlit-app

I'm always interesting in drawing/painting apps for the iPad, so tried out Procreate for the first time today.

See my Pixel Shavings post for a step-by-step description on how I created the image above.

The PugPig guide is currently pending approval int the App Store.

URL: http://www.pugpig.com/

(includes info about how to create your own publication using pugpig)

Thanks to Girl Meets iPad for interviewing me! Girl Meets iPad is "A little blog dedicated to the girls that love their iPads. Sharing information on applications, tools, cases, & covers for the iPad for the modern day girl."

You can read my interview here.

To see my step-by-step process in creating the quickie sketch above in Artrage, read my post today on Pixel Shavings.

I opted to get a Gelaskin only for the back of my iPad 2 because I want to keep the plain back border around the front. Jeff went for the full package (front, back and screensaver).

Anyway, I'm VERY pleased with how it turns out, and the red matches my red iPad2 Smartcover. :-)

Above: I'm in this video of the lineup! I appear near the beginning and am the one doing the shameless promoting. :-)

Reid and I both made an attempt at playing a card game on a makeshift table but soon gave up. I ended up reading an e-book (Mitali Perkins' THE SECRET KEEPER) much of the time while he played Carcassonne and watched movies/tv on his iPad 1.

By this time, the line was pretty huge. An Apple employee told me later that there were an estimated 400 people in the line. Whoa.

Forgot to mention, by the way, that I took all the photos in this report with my iPhone. I had forgotten my point-and-shoot, but thought the iPhone did a decent job. I used my iPhone Twitter app and yFrog to post photos to Twitter. My iPhone chewed through battery pretty fast as I read and posted on Twitter.

SO fun keeping up with what was happening other iPad 2 launches and purchases elsewhere:

But finally (FINALLY) it was our turn! A group of Apple employees burst of the store, cheering and clapping, and ran up and down the entire line doing high-fives with those waiting.

When they got back from their high-fiving, the Apple store employees gathered in front of the store to give us a pep talk (like we needed any more revving up at that point!):

The black curtain was pulled down...

To reveal a human corridor made of the Apple employees inside, all cheering and clapping:

The more cynical of you may want to point out that this whole scene was carefully choreographed, all designed to make us feel great about spending our money on iPads (and maybe some accessories!).

But...so what? After spending 11 hours in line waiting for iPad 2 launch, I'd much rather be greeted this way than walk into a quiet store as if it's any other day. Bring on the party!

I like the fact that each person buying an iPad gets his or her own clerk helping them. Mine was Jocelyn, and she was very relaxed (I didn't once feel as if I was being rushed through so she could get to the next customer) and seemed genuinely tickled that I had lined up for so long for my iPad.

Jocelyn declined to be photographed, but here are some other cool Apple employees I met during the line-up:

And here's the photo that Reid took of me with my NEW IPAD and red magnetic cover:

More about what I think of the new iPad 2 in a future post when my euphoria has died down a bit and I'm able to use it more.

But back to the 11 hours in line. As I said before, it wasn't just about buying an iPad 2. The 11 hours whizzed by pretty fast because of everything that was going on around Reid and me: the conversations between fellow Applenerds in person and around the world, the anticipation and building excitement, the being RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL.

As for the iPad itself, I can't wait to try out this new incarnation for my reading, illustration, writing, music composition, photography, social networking, keeping up with industry blogs, and sooooooooo much more. Jeff and I have already Facetimed with our friends over in Belgium via our iPads.

And yes, I'll probably be waiting in line again when the iPad 3 launches. :-)

I blog about the iPad, e-books and digital publishing, children's e-book apps and apps for creative people at iPadGirl and I tweet from @iPadGirl. You can find out more about my other projects at DebbieOhi.com.

My 3-part iPad Lineup report: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3.