On Tuesday, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization that produces Sesame Street, launched its first e-book collection for young readers. There are currently five Sesame Street e-books are available to read online for free; the company will add more titles next month. Impelsys is the exclusive licensee/seller of Sesame Street e-book content, at www.sesamestreet.org/ebooks.
Through Impelsys's e-content delivery platform iPublishCentral, titles are available as flip e-books, audio e-books (some with Sesame Street character voices), and interactive e-book formats, with activities to enhance reading and learning skills. Starting next spring, Sesame Workshop and Impelsys will begin offering titles for purchase. New titles will be added monthly. Sesame Workshop and Impelsys have not yet established prices, but an Impelsys spokesperson said several models are under consideration, including a per-book fee and an annual subscription.
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From the e-book version of The Monster at the End of This Book. |
The site will continue to offer a rotating selection of five free e-books; one of them will be featured on Sesame Street's homepage each week. This week's featured title is Sesame Workshop's bestselling book of all time: The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone, illustrated by Michael J. Smollin (Random). It is available as an audio e-book.
Scott Chambers, senior v-p of worldwide media distribution at Sesame Workshop, said the partnership with Impelsys will help "leverage our library of 40 years worth of traditional print publishing. iPublishCentral enables us to provide our audience with a new reading experience that will complement our ongoing print publishing titles."
Sesame Street's push into e-books follows the recent launch of Disney Digital Books, wherein subscribers can access an online library of more than 500 classic and contemporary titles for $8.95 a month or $79.95 a year.
The show Sesame Street is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
