FlyingWord, a Minnesota company that began in 2010, has announced it has developed an interactive e-book platform designed to enhance the experience of reading for 21st-century tween, teen, and adult readers. (“Reading plain text is so 16th-century,” the company proclaims on its Web site.) Co-founder and CEO Joe Weber described FlyingWord’s products as books you can “see, hear, and touch.” FlyingWord is partnering with

book publishers, authors, and illustrators to make e-book artwork and illustrations multi-dimensional through audio, 2-D and 3-D graphics, animation, and touch interactions. The audio is fully synchronized with the text, even when a reader pauses and takes up later where he or she left off.

While FlyingWord has published children’s books like ’Twas the Night Before Christmas and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, going forward it intends to specialize in publishing full-length novels as enhanced e-books. Treasure Island and The Wizard of Oz have already been issued as enhanced e-books, with four more enhanced e-books are still in production (release dates have not set). Weber says FlyingWord products are produced per the specifications of the partner on each project, and are compatible with all e-book platforms.