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Reading Rainbow App Brings Books to a New Generation

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Apr 12, 2001
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A generation of children grew up learning to love reading by watching LeVar Burton's PBS show Reading Rainbow. The show was cancelled in 2009 after a 26-year run, but has been resurrected as a new iPad app.

Engadget attended the public launch of the app, and has video of Burton's emotional introduction of the app, as well as some hands-on reviews.
Burton told us that he was genuinely surprised with the public outcry that followed the show's cancellation. Kids have grown up with it for more than a quarter-century, and as such, there are some fairly strong emotional bonds at play here. According to Burton, maintaining the elements that made the show so magical was the most difficult aspect of the 18 months the team invested in the creation of the app. And, naturally, one reporter in attendance wanted to know what happened to the book report feature that played heavily in the TV show. Burton assured him that it's coming.

The app's interface is built around a series of floating islands, each based on a different genre. At present, the islands include "My Friends and Family," "Animal Kingdom," "Genius Academy" (science and math) and "Action Adventures & Magic Tales." More subject islands will be added as the app continues to be built out. Burton told us that the team was looking to move away from the more traditional e-book shelf format, into something that made reading "more of an adventure," much like the original program.
Click to expand...
New books are available via a subscription service for $9.99/month, or $29.99 for a six-month subscription. Reading Rainbow's page on the App Store has additional details for exactly how the subscription system works.

Reading Rainbow is available free for the iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Reading Rainbow App Brings Books to a New Generation
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/22/reading-rainbow-app-brings-books-to-a-new-generation/
nostaws

nostaws

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2006
520
472
Loved Reading Rainbow, but "service for $9.99/month, or $29.99 for a six-month subscription" seems a little steep.
 
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bdavis89

macrumors regular
Sep 10, 2009
174
19
Wow, I had no idea that it kept going until 2009. I grew up with this, lamb chops, wishbone, etc. I just knew him as the guy from startrek. lol
 
I

IzzyJG99

macrumors 6502
Oct 26, 2007
336
6
Ah. LeVar Burton. Teaching kids to read and making sure the Enterprise is always ready for maximum warp.

....Engage.
 
Mad-B-One

Mad-B-One

macrumors 6502a
Jun 24, 2011
789
5
San Antonio, Texas
Pricy!

Wow! I thought "That would be something for my soon-to-be 3yo son." Then I saw the price and thought "Well, National Geographic costs 1/3 ($19.99/year) of that." In other words: I don't think so... :rolleyes:
 
pubwvj

pubwvj

macrumors 68000
Oct 1, 2004
1,901
208
Mountains of Vermont
And when will Apple kill it?

There was a tremendous amount of educational software available under MacOS Classic. Apple abandoned Classic, and then Rosetta, killing off all that software. Shame on Apple for destroying cultural heritage. They should continue support so older software can still run. The new hardware CERTAINLY has the power to do the emulation. Apple CERTAINLY has the BILLIONS of dollars in spare change to do this - in fact it would cost very little.
 
charlituna

charlituna

macrumors G3
Jun 11, 2008
9,636
816
Los Angeles, CA
nostaws said:
Loved Reading Rainbow, but "service for $9.99/month, or $29.99 for a six-month subscription" seems a little steep.
Click to expand...

It seems like it on the surface but then if you think about all the books you'd buy a kid that age that will be read maybe 5 times and then forgotten at $2.99-9.99 a pop, it isn't that crazy. Especially when you get 50% off if you sign up for six months.

My siblings and I easily went through $100 a year even with half our books being hand me downs.
 
b-rad g

b-rad g

macrumors 6502a
Jun 29, 2010
895
1
Was excited to get this for app on my wife's iPad for my 6 year old daughter all the way up to "$9.99/mo"!! Yikes! I would be more inclined to pay $0.99/book, then at least I could by a few at a time and build a library as she gets older and would have the ones she reads now for my 2 year old when she gets older.
 
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daxomni

macrumors 6502
Jun 24, 2009
457
6
I could almost understand the sudden sticker shock if we weren't talking about a $5-$10/mo app on a $500-$800 phone/tablet.
 
Tilpots

Tilpots

macrumors 601
Apr 19, 2006
4,195
71
Carolina Beach, NC
I met Mr.Burton many years ago at a family Christmas Eve party. He was a very nice, down to Earth gentleman. I hope his app succeeds and truly appreciate his undertaking for trying to get kids into reading.
 
FloatingBones

FloatingBones

macrumors 65816
Jul 19, 2006
1,486
745
LeVar Burton's keynote from ORA TOC February 2012

LeVar Burton gave the keynote at the O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference this year about three men who had a huge influence on his career:


I had almost forgotten his first major role.
 
M

muire

macrumors member
Jun 18, 2004
36
2
pubwvj said:
And when will Apple kill it?

There was a tremendous amount of educational software available under MacOS Classic. Apple abandoned Classic, and then Rosetta, killing off all that software. Shame on Apple for destroying cultural heritage. They should continue support so older software can still run. The new hardware CERTAINLY has the power to do the emulation. Apple CERTAINLY has the BILLIONS of dollars in spare change to do this - in fact it would cost very little.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

Well by that logic, should Apple still support floppies, zip drives, and serial ports simply because I have a lot of old software and hardware boxed away? The new hardware CERTAINLY has the power to connect to these devices via a Thunderbolt adapter and Apple CERTAINLY has the BILLIONS of dollars in spare change to do this.

Before you call out Apple for "destroying cultural heritage", fire up your iMac G3 and play Carmen San Diego or whatever educational software you miss from Classic and be thankful it still boots up.

There's a reason why progress is called progress.
 
M

moethebartender

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2012
23
0
The state in which things are designed by Apple
nostaws said:
Loved Reading Rainbow, but "service for $9.99/month, or $29.99 for a six-month subscription" seems a little steep.
Click to expand...

Agreed, especially since (a) the app is listed as free, and (b) the original Reading Rainbow was on PBS. If the subscription proceeds go toward supporting public television, that may be a different story. But the publisher's name is "RRKidz, Inc.", so I doubt it.
 
B

BigJayhawk

macrumors regular
Jan 8, 2003
227
152
New Jersey
moethebartender said:
Agreed, especially since (a) the app is listed as free, and (b) the original Reading Rainbow was on PBS. If the subscription proceeds go toward supporting public television, that may be a different story. But the publisher's name is "RRKidz, Inc.", so I doubt it.
Click to expand...

The show itself didn't "support Public Television" either. It was the fact that Public Television could no longer SUPPORT THE SHOW that resulted in shows like this ending.

All people select an occupation. I've never understood why it is that society seems to feel that people that use their talents to pick a NOBLE OCCUPATION in the first place somehow deserve to be marginalized by that choice. It's like, "if you want to serve our children, run a charitable organization, be a full-time religious speaker (i.e. pastor, priest, etc.), or referee sports for the 'Y' you must not make any kind of living doing it."

LeVar Burton (and RRKidz, Inc. for that matter) don't need to be doing this venture as a CHARITY. They exist to support their families and their shareholders. Ultimately, I feel that many people in America (and on this forum) feel that Reading Rainbow is a NOBLE VENTURE. If you do, support it with the cost of McDonald's for 3-4 people and you have SIX MONTHS worth of Additional Content. If you can't afford it then don't (but perhaps don't go to McDonald's all the time either). The FREE APP already seems to have some pretty good content to start with.

Anyway, pick your priorities and throw support where you feel it is NOBLE. To be honest, I'm considering subscribing just to show support with my dollars even though my kids are now 8 and 12 and never much experienced Reading Rainbow.

Just my two cents.
 
jonnysods

jonnysods

macrumors G3
Sep 20, 2006
8,460
6,930
There & Back Again
I love everything about this announcement except for the price of course. We are spoiled by how cheap apps are I guess these days. But I would love to get this for my kids!
 
Mike Oxard

Mike Oxard

macrumors 6502a
Oct 22, 2009
804
458
Every time I take my son out he asks for stuff, sometimes he gets it, sometimes not. Museums have the exit through the gift shop for this very reason! Lots of kids asking for stuff there! Usually it's some crappy toy that ends up broken after a few days, the crappy toy is the kids version of comparing it to "the cost of a Starbucks coffee".

For $5/month this seem like it is very reasonably priced.
 
Y

YellowKing

macrumors newbie
Jun 26, 2012
1
0
I bought the 6-month subscription for my daughter. She is almost 3 and we read stories before bedtime every night. The problem I had was that she would get bored with reading the same books night after night, and I would too! This meant we were buying new books almost every weekend to the tune of $10-$20. $30 for 6-months of new books was a no-brainer for me and very reasonable considering the cost of kid's books these days.

She absolutely loves the app. She particularly likes the interactive elements and animations in the books. Sometimes she prefers me to read the story, and sometimes prefers the narrator, so it's nice to have both options.

I do have some minor nitpicks with the app. The book selection is OK but there aren't a lot of "classic" kids books. We have found enough to keep us entertained, but hopefully they'll be able to introduce more award-winning books at some point. I also wish animations would not interrupt the narrator. My daughter likes to immediately touch the interactive elements, but this causes the narrator to start over. My only other wish is that there was a full screen option, as some of the book text is small even when zoomed in.

That said, the books that are implemented are all done beautifully. All of the narration has been great (compared to other storybook apps I've used on the iPad), and the animations and sound effects are fun and subtle enough not to detract from the stories.

One other feature my daughter really likes is the virtual sticker album. Every time you complete a new book, you get a sticker. This really encourages her to try new books.

I don't believe in using electronic media as a replacement for traditional paper books, as I think kids get way too much screen time as it is these days. However, this app is a nice supplement to our traditional reading and is also great for times when she just wants to sit down and watch a story on her own.

Part of the reason that I purchased the app is that I loved the show when I was younger and it encouraged a love of reading that continues to this day. I hope that by all of us supporting the app they'll be able to polish up some of the minor quibbles and produce a lot more content.
 
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