Just released this week, a new app for the iPad allows children to star in their own digital books. Using the iPad 2’s built in camera, the app uses a photo of your child and their name to give them the leading role in an animated storybook.

The app is called Jib Jab Jr. and comes from the makers of Jib Jab e-cards, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis. The team got the idea from their Starring You e-cards which allow you to personalize electronic greetings with photos of friends and family. As parents themselves, the brothers were already consumers of children’s books for the iPad. Through their own experience, and by using their children as a mini test market, the brothers were able to pinpoint what worked and what didn’t.

“We see a huge opportunity to disrupt children’s publishing and reinvent storytelling with new devices,” Gregg told USA TODAY.  The brothers are joining a growing market. Currently, 47 out of the 50 top iTunes book apps are for kids. Veteran authors are also joining the digital field. Nicholas Callaway, author of the popular Miss Spider series has since quit the traditional book market to focus completely on digital books. “We wanted to be freed from old ways of thinking,” he says. “These are not just new devices. It’s a new medium.”

Jib Jab Jr. books can be purchased a la cart for $7.99 each or for $3.99, monthly subscribers will receive a free e-book every month plus the reduced price of $3.99 for each additional book they purchase. For more information and to download your own interactive book, visit the iTunes App store.