Penguin Young Readers Group Launches Leveled Reading Program App
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Interactive App featured as ‘New and Noteworthy’ in the app store during WWDC ’13
New York, NY (June 11, 2013) Building on the successful launch of the “Penguin Young Readers” leveled reading program, Penguin Young Readers Group is pleased to introduce a free app on the iOS platform. The Penguin Leveled Readers app delivers the best authors, illustrators, and brands from Penguin Young Readers Group’s individual imprints, and features a traditional numbered leveling system, as well as the Guided Reading leveling system, to ensure quick recognition for educators, parents, and kids. The enhanced editions available on the app come with their own narration, as well ‘draw and record’ technology that will allow users to create interactive hotspots and record their own stories and sounds.
Penguin Leveled Readers will launch with seventy-five titles and will include classics such as Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, as well as books featuring beloved characters such as, Young Cam Jansen by David Adler, Amanda Pig by Jean Van Leeuwen, and Tomie dePaola’s The Barker Twins.
Each book’s fun and informative narration will delight budding readers for hours. This app then goes one step further, by allowing users to record their own stories and sounds with their device’s microphone. Up to three versions of these personalized narrations can be saved to each book, so the whole family to get in on the fun.
Penguin Leveled Readers is a free iOS app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. A book from each level is free and the collection can easily be expanded upon whenever the young reader is ready to progress to the next level via the in-app store.
Each Penguin Young Readers book is assigned a traditional, numbered, easy-to-read level (1-4) as well as a Guided Reading Level (A-P). The traditional leveling system 1-4 was created to satisfy parents and educators who are accustomed to this conventional branding. To further bolster the educational value of this new reader line, Penguin has also added descriptive language to each level: Level 1 = Emergent Reader, Level 2 = Progressing Reader, Level 3 = Transitional Reader, Level 4 = Fluent Reader. In addition, the books are leveled by independent reviewers applying the standards developed by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell’s Guided Reading system, which is used in classrooms across the country.
Full information about Penguin Leveled Readers and the “Penguin Young Readers” leveled reading program, including detailed information about each level, videos, curriculum guides, and more, can be found at www.penguinyoungreaders.com.
Penguin Young Readers Group is one of the leading children’s book publishers in the United States. The company owns a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Dial Books, Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap, Philomel, Puffin, Speak, Firebird, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Viking, Razorbill, and Frederick Warne. These imprints are home to such award-winning, New York Timesbestselling authors as Laurie Halse Anderson, Jay Asher, Judy Blume, Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Roald Dahl, Tomie dePaola, Sarah Dessen, John Green, Eric Hill, Anthony Horowitz, Brian Jacques, Mike Lupica, Richelle Mead, Richard Peck, Patricia Polacco, and dozens of other popular authors. Penguin Young Readers Group is also the proud publisher of perennial brand franchises such as The Little Engine That Could, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Peter Rabbit, Spot, the Classic Winnie-the-Pooh, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Strega Nona, Madeline, Mad Libs, Alex Rider, the Rangers Apprentice, Skippyjon Jones, Flower Fairies, and Pippi Longstocking, among many others. Penguin Young Readers Group is a division of Penguin Group (USA), the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group, one of the largest English-language trade book publishers in the world. The Penguin Group is owned by Pearson plc, the international media group.
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Viking, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Penguin Press, Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books, Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Philomel, Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, Razorbill and Frederick Warne, among others. The Penguin Group (http://www.penguin.com) is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
