Back On The Rainbow: Reviving A Classic Show With Technology

Via The LA Times:

"Butterfly in the sky... I can go twice as high..." These opening lines, accompanied by building synthesizer chords, are enough to trigger nostalgia from most book nerds who grew up in the '80s. Now, a whole new generation will be introduced to the Reading Rainbow and LeVar Burton's book-based adventures.

"The unvarnished truth is that we have spent the last decade funding the machinery of war, and our children have been sacrificed," the surprisingly political Burton said in a recent interview discussing the show's revival. "And that's not okay. I genuinely believe we have an opportunity to revolutionize how we educate our children."

The show is back exclusively on the iPad, currently offering 150 books aimed children ages 3 to 9—the age where kids are "on the cusp of cracking the code and [who] just cracked the code, setting the lifelong pattern for whether they will be a reader or not," Burton said.

It's free to download for limited access to content; a monthly subscription of $9.99 gives unlimited access—or $29.99 for six months.

I can only hope the producers keep the cheesy '80s intro graphics.

Image via Gizmodo