Butterflies in the Sky...Return of Reading Rainbow!

As I have been absorbing the wonderful humidity of the east coast this week, I've had my eye on the reading world.  I recently heard that Reading Rainbow, the beloved show about the best books to read, has now returned via the iPad!  You can download the new app for your iPad and introduce your little ones to new "field trips," lots of great books, and new motivation to read. 

This new app is an effort brought on by Lavar Burton himself.  After the show was cancelled in 2006 after 23 years of book recommendations,  we were left without a connection to the show, except to find old episodes on YouTube to get our fix.  However, Lavar, as he mentions on the Reading Rainbow website, says he worked hard to acquire the Reading Rainbow brand.  I guess he desperately wanted Reading Rainbow back just as much as the rest of us! As he says, his purpose, is to uphold the "tradition while creating a more active, lean-forward reading experience for your kids."

Well, I say WAHHOOOO!  What a great way to create a bridge between technology and children's literature.  While folks are still trying to decide where they stand in terms of handing kids technology instead of/in addition to "real" books with pages, this app will offer a compromise.  I can't wait to try it and would be interested in thoughts from those who already have.  For those who still want to see the classic episodes, I have heard rumors that all episodes from the original show will be made available.  In the meantime, I think this app is great start...but, you don't have to take my word for it! (Check out the trailer for the app below!)