FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
CONTACT:
Casey Lloyd, Random House Children’s Books
(212) 782-9043 | clloyd@randomhouse.com
Jodi Lefkowitz, Sesame Workshop
(212) 875-6497 | Jodi.Lefkowitz@sesame.org
RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S BOOKS RELEASES
ELMO’S BIG BIRTHDAY BASH!—A Step into Reading™ App for IPAD®
The First App in Partnership with Sesame Workshop and
the First in a Line of Step into Reading™ Apps
(April 25, 2012, New York, NY)—Random House Children’s Books (www.randomhouse.com/kids) announced today that Elmo’s Big Birthday Bash!—A
Step into Reading™ App for iPad® is now available on the App Store. This
30+ page interactive story is designed to help children practice early reading
skills and includes helpful reading tools for parents and three literacy games.
The app features narration by Bob McGrath (“Bob”), a fixture on Sesame
Street® for more than 40 years.
Elmo’s Big Birthday Bash!—A Step into Reading App is the first app developed as part of Random House
Children’s Books and Sesame Workshop’s joint digital
publishing program. The program launched earlier this year with the release of
several Step into Reading™ Sesame Street® ebooks. Elmo’s
Big Birthday Bash! is a brand-new interactive story and also the first Step
into Reading™ app developed by Random House Children’s Books with Smashing
Ideas. The Step into Reading program is designed to give every child a
successful reading experience. Children can progress through the steps at their
own speed, developing confidence in their reading, no matter what their age.
Sesame Workshop’s Jennifer A. Perry, Vice President, Worldwide
Publishing, comments, “Step into Reading books are part of every beginning
reader’s library. We are thrilled to have an original Sesame Street
story be the first app tie-in to this renowned series. Based on testing with
preschoolers, Elmo’s Big Birthday Bash! was designed to integrate a
read-aloud story with fundamental early reading skills to help start young
readers on the road to a lifelong love of reading.”
Conceived as a tool to aid beginning readers, Elmo’s Big Birthday
Bash!—A Step into Reading™ App contains helpful hints and ideas for parents
to help make reading fun from the education experts at Sesame Workshop and
Random House Children’s Books. The app is equipped with rich reading tools
throughout; children can tap on any word in the story to hear it read aloud and
hear definitions and fun questions for select vocabulary words. Supplemental
activities featured in the app include three hands-on games with Elmo, which
allow children to practice upper and lowercase letters, learn letter sounds,
and match rhyming words—skills that are building blocks for strong readers.
Users will have the option of experiencing the story in three different
ways. The first option enables users to watch and listen as words are
highlighted while the text is read aloud and pages turn automatically. The
second option allows users to turn off the narration and read at their own pace
(with individual words spoken with the tap of a finger), and the third option
allows readers to record their own voice to play on each page.
The Elmo’s Big Birthday Bash!—A Step into Reading™ App is
available for $3.99 from the App Store on iPad® or at www.iTunes.com/AppStore.
Learn more about Random House Children’s Books apps at www.RHKidsApps.com.
Random House Children’s Books is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book
publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all
formats from board books to activity books to picture books, novels, ebooks,
and apps, the imprints of Random House Children’s Books bring together
award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and
multimillion-copy series. The company’s website, Kids @ Random (www.RandomHouse.com/kids) offers an array of activities, games and resources
for children, teens, parents, and educators. Random House Children’s Books is a
division of Random House, Inc., whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG, a
leading international media company.
Sesame Workshop (www.SesameWorkshop.org) is the nonprofit educational organization that
revolutionized children’s television programming with the landmark Sesame
Street. The Workshop produces local Sesame Street programs, seen in
over 150 countries, and other acclaimed shows including The Electric
Company, to help bridge the literacy gap. Beyond television, the Workshop
produces content for multiple media platforms on a wide range of issues
including literacy, health, and military deployment. Initiatives meet specific
needs to help young children and families develop critical skills, acquire
healthy habits and build emotional strength to prepare them for lifelong
learning.
Smashing Ideas (www.SmashingIdeas.com), founded in 1996, has become one of the leading
digital media agencies by creating immersive, interactive content
that that engages users and generates meaningful
results. Cartoon Network, Disney,
GE, Mattel, Microsoft, Nickelodeon, Sony, Verizon Wireless,
and more have called upon the company to develop engaging, online, and mobile
experiences for their audiences. Smashing Ideas is based in Seattle, with
offices in the U.K.
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