SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Wanderful Interactive Storybooks, a leader in the development of interactive storybook apps designed for today's generation of digital kids, has introduced the slightly spooky, highly fun "Harry and the Haunted House" just in time for Halloween. Originally written by Mark Schlichting for the revolutionary Living Books series, "Harry and the Haunted House" has been updated with new features designed by Schlichting himself for the new Wanderful App launch. 

Schlichting is the creator of the beloved line of Living Books, the classic titles originally published by Broderbund Software and seen as the first interactive storybooks for kids. As Wanderful's Chief Creative Officer, Schlichting is now working to reinvent and reintroduce the Living Books titles for young and emerging readers (and their families) everywhere.

Telling the tale of how kids with overactive imaginations can make things can seem a little scarier than they really are, "Harry and the Haunted House" comes to life on every page as it allows readers to fully interact with all of the characters and words for hours of slightly spooky interactive play.  Inviting kids to read and play along with Harry and his friends as they retrieve their baseball lost in the "haunted" house across the field, this imaginative reading experience is full of animated content and surprises on each page.

As an added plus, "Harry and the Haunted House" has a READ TO ME mode, allowing children to enjoy the story experience by itself. The book comes in English and Spanish for one price, and features an easy upgrade to unlock the story in French as well.

"When I first wrote 'Harry and the Haunted House,' I wanted to allow kids to go inside the pages of the storybook and play along with Harry and his friends as they overcome their imaginations while exploring the old house. I couldn't be more excited to work with the Wanderful team to bring my characters and this engaging story back to life on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices," said Schlichting.  "This story is packed with interactivity (and we had a blast making it).  Virtually everything that looks tappable, is.  And this extends to the words too.  We recorded each word of the story separately so that kids can play with the words and build their own sentences, allowing for greater language play. Originally I watched my own kids play with my title, and now I get to watch my grandkids explore the story over and over. It's great fun to watch, or do with them!"

Wanderful apps are highly intuitive and encourage children to explore each storybook page deeply for all its hidden content.  With extended animation and hundreds of interactive antics, the apps provide a richer interactive experience on one page than other story apps offer in a whole book.

To provide a multilingual reading experience, Wanderful has created an easy-to-use dynamic language function that allows readers to switch languages on-the-fly from anywhere in the story – a stunningly simple and powerful feature unlike anything found in other interactive storybooks or eBooks. 

Wanderful's "Harry and the Haunted House" App is available for $4.99 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/harry-haunted-house-wanderful/id565239081?mt=8. 

A premium upgrade is available – $2.99 via In-App Purchase – which includes a 42 page Classroom Activities Guide and the addition of French language content. For those who don't require the Classroom Activities Guide, French can be added for a $1.99 via In-App Purchase.

About Wanderful
Originally introduced in 1992 by Broderbund Software, Living Books were the industry's first highly interactive storybooks and embraced by educators, praised by parents and cherished by children.  Twenty years later, Bay Area based Wanderful has assembled key members of the original team, including Living Books creator Mark Schlichting, to re-invent the wildly popular interactive storybooks.  The team has built an entirely new multi-platform engine to drive the story experience on the latest tablets, phones and computers, resulting in interactive storybook apps designed for today's generation of digital kids.  Visit www.wanderfulstorybooks.com for more information or search "Wanderful storybooks" on the App Store.

Media Contacts:
Jim Hughes | Carol Lee
Rogers & Cowan
310-854-8275 | 310-854-8168
jhughes@rogersandcowan.com
clee@rogersandcowan.com

SOURCE Wanderful