Cricket Media Announces Story Bug, A New Collaborative Reading App For iPad and iPhone

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cricket Media, an education media company and global learning network, today announced that Story Bug, an exciting new collaborative reading app for the iPad and iPhone, is now available on the App Store.

With Story Bug, sharing the experience of reading with loved ones is no longer limited to being in the same room together. The app, which seamlessly combines video chat with an interactive reader, allows young people and adults in different locations to socialize and bond while reading specially curated selections drawn from Cricket Media's portfolio of acclaimed children's magazines.

Story Bug is powered by technology from Kindoma, the award-winning creator of communication apps focused on connecting families.

Users of the Story Bug app see and hear each other while viewing the same digital book. They also share controls for turning pages and interacting with the content. So when a page is turned on one device, the page simultaneously turns for the user of the other device. In addition, a digital "shadow hand" shows where your counterpart is pointing, so grown-ups can challenge their young readers to point to items on the page or sound out specific words.

Now the magic of sharing a bedtime story, or simply reading to a child is possible anywhere, anytime for parents traveling on business, deployed military families and geographically dispersed friends and family.

In addition to being an exciting new way for families to read together, Story Bug offers children and their reading partners the very best in enlightening and entertaining content for young people, featuring selections from Cricket Media's beloved children's publications, such as Ladybug and Click.  In addition, full issues of Babybug, the award-winning magazine for children under 3 years old, will be available. Cricket Media is a market leader in developing enriching, educational content for children, and its publications were recognized for their excellence earlier this year by The Parents' Choice Foundation, which honored each of Cricket Media's magazines with its Spring 2014 Parents' Choice Award.

Story Bug users can choose from a customizable library of digital books for children aged 0-6 that  engage young readers through early development concepts and subjects such as counting, rhyming, animals, colors, riddles, and machines & tools, bedtime and more. Titles at launch include "Favorite Mother Goose Rhymes," a collection of favorite children's rhymes such as Little Miss Muffet, Jack and Jill, Old Kind Cole, Pop Goes the Weasel and more; "The One with the Freckle," a story about a little boy who learns to have fun without his twin brother on his first day of kindergarten; and "Big Sister's Goodnight," a story about a big sister who helps her baby sister get ready for bed.

"We are thrilled to introduce the new Story Bug app for iOS," said Katya Andresen, CEO, Cricket Media. "Family members and friends have long turned to Cricket Media and our award winning library to entertain, enlighten and inspire children. Now with Story Bug, kids and their loved ones have a wonderful way to connect and come together to share the experience of reading our content whether they are in different rooms, different towns or different countries."

The Story Bug App is available for free from the App Store on the iPhone or iPad or at http://bit.ly/1whBUU3. Users  receive two books for free when downloading the app, and can subscribe to access dozens of other books, with more added each month, for $4.99 per month, $14.99 per six months, or $24.99 per year. Individual titles are also available for purchase at $2.99 each.

For more information, please visit http://bit.ly/1whBUU3

About Cricket Media  

Cricket Media (TSXV: CKT) is an education media company that provides award-winning content on a safe and secure learning network for children, families and teachers across the world.  Cricket Media's 14 popular media brands for toddlers to teens include Babybug, Ladybug, Cricket® and Cobblestone® with multiple language editions and apps in English, Spanish and Chinese.  The Company's innovative web-based K12 tools for school and home include the ePals community and virtual classroom for global collaboration as well as In2Books®, a Common Core eMentoring program that builds reading, writing and critical thinking skills.  Cricket Media serves approximately one million classrooms and millions of teachers, students and parents in over 200 countries and territories through its platform and NeuPals, its joint venture with China's leading IT services company Neusoft. Cricket Media also licenses its content and platform to top publishing and educational companies worldwide.  For more information, please visit www.Cricketmag.com, www.ePals.com and www.in2books.com.

About Kindoma

Kindoma is a communications company that lets families do activities like read and draw together, even when apart.  Kindoma has created the world's first COPPA compliant video chat solution targeting kids and families, and used it to power its own critically-acclaimed app Kindoma Storytime as well as Cricket Media's Story Bug.  Kindoma partners with leading publishers, producers and developers to help families around the world share experiences at a distance.  For more information, please visit www.kindoma.com.

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SOURCE Cricket Media