January 10, 2016 Breathing New Life into Out-of-Print Children’s Books Subject of Special Event

Four rare children’s books from the Library of Congress collections will be displayed and unveiled in an all-new electronic format at a special event on Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 10:45 a.m. in the Young Readers Center, located on the ground floor of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.

The program, which is free and open to the public, is presented by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Young Readers Center, the Children’s Literature Center and the Educational Outreach division in the Library of Congress in collaboration with Cricket Media. No tickets are required.

The children’s books, published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, include “The Slant Book” (1910) and “The Rocket Book” (1912), by Peter Newell; “Gobolinks, or Shadow Pictures for Young and Old” (1896), created by Ruth McEnery Stuart and Albert Bigelow Paine; and “The Song of Sixpence Picture Book” (1909), embellished and illustrated in full color by Walter Crane. All reside in the collections of the Library of Congress, have been digitized by the Library and are available online through Read.gov.

The books will be on display and also demonstrated for the first time on Story Bug, a story-telling app by Cricket Media. Story Bug combines video chat with a shared reader that allows two people to read a book together, enabling story time with a loved one anywhere, anytime. The app is available free through iTunes.

“It is exciting how new technologies are enabling these beautiful and clever books that our ancestors may well have read when they were children to be introduced to new generations,” explained Lee Ann Potter, the Library’s Director of Educational Outreach.

“It is a privilege to have the opportunity to bring these rare and historic children’s books into the digital age,” added Katya Andresen, CEO of Cricket Media. “We are very excited about our collaboration with the Library of Congress and are looking forward to making more of these classic books available to young readers through our Story Bug app.”

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s first federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs, publications and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at loc.gov.

The Library’s Center for the Book, established by Congress in 1977 to “stimulate public interest in books and reading,” is a national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages through its affiliated state centers, collaborations with nonprofit reading-promotion partners and through the Young Readers Center (founded in 2009) and the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit Read.gov.

The Children's Literature Center in the Library of Congress was established in 1963 to provide reference and bibliographic assistance to scholars, librarians, teachers, publishers, children's book authors and illustrators and to recognize and encourage excellence in literature for children. For more information, visit loc.gov/rr/child/.

The Educational Outreach division of the Library of Congress is dedicated to providing educators with engaging methods and high-quality materials to effectively teach with primary sources. For more information, visit loc.gov/teachers/.

Cricket Media, Inc. is an education media company that provides award-winning content on a safe and secure learning network for children, families and teachers. Cricket Media’s 11 popular media brands for toddlers to teens include Babybug, Ladybug, Cricket and Cobblestone. 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 1 million classrooms and millions of teachers, students and parents in more than 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, visit cricketmedia.com External.