MAGGIE TALES™ DIGITAL CHILDREN'S BOOKS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR iPHONE®, iPOD®, SONY PSP®, SMART PHONES AND MORE.

Maggie Tales Instant Storytimes™ Digitized Children’s Literature is Now Easily Downloadable to a Majority of the Industry’s Most Popular Portable Devices, Providing Enriching Content for Kids and Parents On-the-Go.

BUCKINGHAM, PA (January 16, 2008) – /PRNewswire/ – Maggie Tales, one of the market’s first digital children’s literature services, announces that its “Instant Storytimes For Kids” are now available for easy downloading to a majority of the market’s most popular portable media devices, including the Apple iPod®, iPhone®, Microsoft Zune™, a variety of smart phones and cell phones; plus the Sony PSP®, Nintendo Wii®, and Microsoft Xbox 360™ gaming systems. 

Maggie Tales’ Storytimes are easily accessible from several different online sites.  Parents can watch and/or download Storytimes from the user-friendly Maggie Tales web site at www.MaggieTales.com, and they are also available at the Apple iTunes store (search “Maggie Tales”).   The Storytimes for the iPhone can be viewed via streaming media at www.MaggieTales.com/iphone; and for the Nintendo Wii at www.MaggieTales.com/wii.

Maggie Tales Instant Storytime For Kids™ are digital reproductions of high-quality, published children’s picture books, complete with the original text and artwork, custom-composed music, page-turn cues and narration by actual elementary teachers and reading specialists.  All Storytimes have been made available for free through sponsor support.  An editorial review board consisting of education and reading specialists oversees content selection and product design.

The download process is straightforward enough for even non-technically oriented parents.  Moms and Dads can either download Storytimes on a regular basis via iTunes, or stream them wirelessly, on-the-spot, from the above-mentioned sites.  Approximately two dozen stories are now available for downloading or streaming and more titles are in production and being negotiated with publishers. 

The Maggie Tales Instant Storytime For Kids service was developed to meet a need in the marketplace for enriching, creative digital content that serves as an alternative to the typical video game.  The concept of downloading authentic, digital versions of children’s picture books to common portable media devices was the brainchild of Mark Smith of Buckingham, PA, who noticed a father in an airport who calmed his restless youngster by allowing him to view CNBC.com on a SmartPhone.  Wouldn’t it be ideal, thought Smith, to deliver children’s literature through these ubiquitous devices, providing easy-to-use and enriching entertainment for children who are accompanying their parents in shopping centers, restaurants, grocery stores, waiting rooms, or during air travel or long car trips?

“Children’s literature has yet to enter the digital age, and Maggie Tales is a perfect application for it,” said Smith.  “Parents often succumb to entertaining their children with video games and other digital media in public venues, and who can blame them?  But the market is ripe for digital content that incorporates the same values that traditional picture books have always provided, something similar to the story time experience of children being read to in the classroom.  Maggie Tales finally brings a carefully crafted, creative story time experience to the electronic universe, and parents don’t even have to pack anything extra to use it.”

As for the content, the Storytimes are crafted according to guidance from elementary reading specialists.  E.g., the “karaoke” concept is avoided and text is reproduced as it appears in the printed book, since research shows that the traditional use of still text, a page-turn cue and an animated page turn is more conducive to the reading process.  In addition to Maggie Tales’ Editorial Review Board, content is also reviewed by a group of children of the appropriate age group for each of the books. 

“Maggie Tales is an overdue concept,” said Patricia Stirnkorb, founder of children’s book publisher Journey Stone Creations, a major contributor to Maggie Tales’ current content list.  “Children’s books deserve to take back their place as a medium for children in the digital age, and this is a great way to start.”

About Maggie Tales
Idea Stream Productions LLC creates Maggie Tales™, Instant Storytime™ for Kids portable digital stories based on existing children’s picture books for kids ages two years and up.  The company believes in providing both parents and kids a wholesome, mobile learning experience that is available instantly or can be taken just about anywhere.  Maggie Tales’ Editorial Review Board™ considers existing in-print and out-of-print children’s picture books, and combines narration, original music, page turn tones and page turn animations to create “Storytimes” for downloading or streaming to portable media devices.  Maggie Tales are developed and produced by early reading specialists, narrators, composers, video editors, recording engineers and graphic designers.  Learn more at www.MaggieTales.com.