Making e-books even more kid-friendly: the Storia reading app from Scholastic

Kids’ books will be getting the e-book treatment by children’s publisher Scholastic through the Storia reading app, which includes multimedia e-books, an electronic book shelf, quizzes, an e-dictionary and other interactive components.

A beta version of Scholastic’s app became accessible yesterday to customers who purchase books through Scholastic programs like the Scholastic Book Club. The beta version of the app is currently accessible at www.scholastic.com/storia for PCs, though not for Macs, and will be available for the iPad later this month. Storia will make its official debut in the fall, when it will also become available on other tablet devices and smartphones.

The app currently includes about 1,300 e-book titles, many of which have not been converted to digital format previously, including the children’s book “Clifford the Big Red Dog.” Through Storia, users will be able to buy the books from Scholastic or other booksellers, with e-books costing between $1.95 and $20. The app is divided into two sections, one for children ages 3 to 7 and the other for readers between the ages of 8 and 14.

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Through Storia, parents of young readers will be able to track how long a child read and what titles he or she was perusing. Parents will also be able to assign books or block certain titles from being accessed by children.

More titles will be added to Storia for its fall debut.

“[It’s] a way to support reading and something that’s just plain fun,” Scholastic Media president Deborah Forte told the Associated Press.

After downloading the app, users receive five e-books for free, and two of the five freebies can be multimedia books.

Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.

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