History YMMV / LivingBooks

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: When the games originally came out, almost nothing like them had ever been done before. A piece of software with the look and feel of a fully animated hand-drawn cartoon (rather than blocky looking sprite-based graphics) that you could actually interact with was seen as nothing more than a fantasy before these games came out. They also were one of the first very successful examples of an EdutainmentGame that found its perfect sweet spot, that is a game that really was educational without the players even realizing it. In fact, it was so successful that it was considered a KillerApp for CD-ROM drives as far as families and schools were concerned (keep in mind, CD drives were still hardly gaining a foothold back in 1992 when the first game was released; although it didn't affect CD drive sales as much as, say, ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' or ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'', it still says something that many parents and teachers reported buying them just for the sake of running Living Books games). Nowadays, with it establishing the "interactive storybook" subgenre and an onslaught of clones, plus plenty of other hand-drawn computer games coming out in the years down the line, it can be easy to write them off as dated and unremarkable by comparison, and in fact many contemporary players still lump them in as "just another one of those storybook games where you could click everything," neglecting to realize they essentially grandfathered the concept.

* HarsherInHindsight: In ''Arthur's Reading Race'', Page 11 has Arthur feeding Pal his chocolate ice cream cone, [[ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare despite the fact that chocolate is toxic to dogs]]. In the TV show episode "Sick As a Dog", Arthur makes Pal very sick due to feeding him foods that are not appropriate for dogs, including candy. Thankfully, by the 2015 episode "One Ornery Critter", Arthur warns Buster not to have chocolate around dogs since it's really bad for them.

* HarsherInHindsight: In ''Arthur's Reading Race'', Page 11 has Arthur feeding Pal his chocolate ice cream cone, [[ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare despite the fact that chocolate is toxic to dogs]]. In the TV show episode "Sick As a Dog", Arthur would make Pal very sick due to feeding him foods that are not appropriate for dogs, including candy. Thankfully, the 2015 episode "One Ornery Critter" would have Arthur warn Buster not to have chocolate in front of dogs since it's really bad for them, clearly having gotten wiser at that point.

** Also from ''Arthur's Reading Race'', Page 11 has Arthur feeding Pal his chocolate ice cream cone, [[ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare despite the fact that chocolate is toxic to dogs]]. In the 2015 episode of the TV show, "One Ornery Critter", Arthur would warn Buster not to have chocolate in front of dogs since it's really bad for them.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Some of the click-points lead to some...trippy animations. [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight And the characters rarely react to them]]. Possibly justified in the Dr. Seuss adaptations.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The music that accompanies the paper airplane gag in ''Arthur's Teacher Trouble'' bears a strong resemblance to Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone".

** The first two games have hotspot scenes that are a lot more disturbing than later games. A glaring example is the flour sack in Arthur's Mom's kitchen: Its label is a circle, and if you click it, an arrow lands a bullseye and the flour sack stars coughing and moaning in pain, then its contents pour out ever so slowly as if it was [[BloodFromTheMouth bleeding internally]] and it falls to the ground in a puff of flour. How did this get past the censors?

*** The skunk gives it as "Don't be such a big shot". The hare insulted the tortoise earlier for being slow, so him losing the race could be interpreted as getting his comeuppance.

** ''Sheila Rae, the Brave'' is more well known than the book.

* FridgeBrilliance: Many characters can be seen sneezing in "Harry and the Haunted House". Perhaps this is because the house is old and (barring the ghosts and {{Animate Inanimate Object}}s) abandoned and thus is probably very dusty.

* TearJerker: The MelancholyMusicalNumber that Stellaluna sings on Page 2 of ''Stellaluna'':
-->'''Stellaluna''': "Alone in this enormous world\\

** ''Harry and the Haunted House'' and ''Ruff's Bone'' are both more well-known than the books, but this is justified since those were made to be Living Books.'

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Found in the last page of ''The Tortoise and the Hare''. If you click on the Tortoise, he will compliment the Hare for racing and offer a handshake... and the Hare accepts the handshake and congratulates the Tortoise in his victory.

--> '''Buster''': [[LampshadeHanging I-I don't think those are f-friendly fish...!]]

* OlderThanTheyThink: The series could be considered a prototype version of the KineticNovel genre, despite coming out way before the term (or its related term, ''sound novel'') was even ''invented''.

** The Living Books concept itself had been done before, albeit less successfully, with an obscure Apple II game called ''Explore-a-Story'' by Learningways, Inc..

* CantUnhearIH: You absolutely will hear the in-game voices and narration next time you read the adapted book. Particularly enforced with books that otherwise never got fully voiced adaptations anywhere else.

* CantUnhearIt: You absolutely will hear the in-game voices and narration next time you read the adapted book. Particularly enforced with books that otherwise never got fully voiced adaptations anywhere else.

** Many of the ''Literature/{{Arthur}}'' books are far more well known than their original iterations. In fact, some people have thought that the games were based off [[WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}} the show]], despite being released several years beforehand (with the exception of ''Arthur's Computer Adventure'', which was based on a book that was, in fact, based on an episode of the show).

** Many of the ''Literature/{{Arthur}}'' books are far more well known than their original iterations. In fact, some people have thought that the games were based off [[WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}} the show]], despite being released several years beforehand.