Wanderful Re-Invents Beloved, Award-Winning Living Books Through Enhanced Interactive Storybook Apps

SAN FRANCISCO, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Wanderful today announced it will launch a new collection of multilingual interactive storybook apps based on the award-winning Living Books series.  Wanderful's storybook apps will deliver the most imaginative, engaging and fully interactive experiences for young readers and pre-readers through high-quality, animated content loved by children, parents and teachers alike.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120618/LA25538LOGO)

The company will initially launch three titles on iTunes and in the Apple App Store:  "The Tortoise and the Hare," "Little Monster at School" and "Arthur's Teacher Trouble." Additional titles based on Jan & Stan Berenstain's Berenstain Bears, Marc Brown's Arthur, and others noted authors will be released in the coming months. Each Wanderful app is available in three versions: a standard, single language edition is $4.99 (and extra languages can be added for $1.99 each); the premium version features multiple languages, a 40-70 page classroom activities guide and the right to perpetual updates for $7.99 – a best choice for motivated parents and educators. Plus, each title will be released with a free version, presenting one story page of fully interactive content to allow anyone to sample these creative applications.

Introduced in 1992 by Broderbund Software, Living Books were the industry's first highly interactive storybooks and were embraced by educators, treasured by parents and cherished by children.  Twenty years later Wanderful has assembled key members of the original Living Books team, including creator Mark Schlichting, to re-invent the amazing interactive storybooks for a new generation of digital kids, updated and enhanced for the latest mobile tablets and phones as well as current Mac and Windows computers.

"The beloved, best-selling and wonderful Living Books are back, and better than ever with all the high-quality, animated content kids, parents and teachers love and with the multiple languages that made them worldwide hits," said Mickey W. Mantle, President, Wanderful. "Each Wanderful interactive storybook is a truly 'wanderful' experience – full of surprise, whim and humor – and an invitation to explore because everything inside every storybook is alive."

Highly intuitive, even for emerging readers, the Wanderful apps allow children to explore each story and all its content with little to no guidance. With each title filled with hundreds of interactive hot spots and antics, the new Wanderful interactive storybooks include a deeper story experience and feature more interactivity on one page than many other story apps have in their entire books.

Wanderful has created a dynamic language function that allows readers to switch languages on-the-fly from anywhere in the story – a stunningly simple and powerful feature unlike anything found in other interactive storybooks or ebooks. With multiple languages per title (each accessible from within the book), Wanderful's interactive storybooks are poised to reach readers worldwide as well as engage young readers with second language experiences, imparting second-language skills during formative years.

The Wanderful apps feature original music composed specifically for each title. While fully interactive at the page level, each app also includes the classic "read to me" mode that lets young readers watch and listen to the story play automatically.

"Wanderful interactive storybooks are designed especially for emerging and early readers who thrive on the magic of great stories and the joy of learning that comes from exploration and discovery," said Schlichting, reprising his creative direction role with Wanderful. "Living Books were the first truly interactive storybooks, defined the category, won numerous awards, and were consistent hits with kids, parents and educators. The content is really engaging and just plain fun; we're excited to reintroduce these titles to the current generation of young readers though a myriad of devices."

Wanderful apps will be available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch on iTunes and the Mac versions will be on the Mac App Store later this month. Android and Windows versions will debut later this year.

Wanderful on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/WanderfulStorybooks

Wanderful on Twitter:  @Wanderfulbooks

About Wanderful
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Wanderful delivers imaginative, engaging and fully interactive experiences for young readers and pre-readers, inspiring them to explore the magical worlds of story and language. Founded by Mickey W. Mantle, the former Broderbund CTO who oversaw the technology development for the original Living Books, and with creative direction from Mark Schlichting, noted pioneer of the children's multimedia and interactive design industry who serves as Wanderful's Chief Creative Officer, Wanderful's goal is to bring interactive storybooks to a new generation of kids on the latest multi-touch tablets and mobile devices. For more information, visit www.wanderfulstorybooks.com.

Media Contacts:
Jim Hughes | Carol Lee
Rogers & Cowan
310-854-8275 | 310-854-8168
[email protected]
[email protected]

SOURCE Wanderful