Speakaboos

Speakaboos is a straightforward product:classic and original stories and songs, illustrated and read or sung aloud bycelebrities like The Office’s JohnKrasinski, Survivor host Jeff Probstand That 70’s Show star WilmerVilderrama (a voice already beloved by small children as Handy Manny). Users can read a few dozen free books on the site incategories like fairy tales and adventure stories or from popular franchiseslike Arthur, download related worksheets or play simple games like word searchesbased on the stories; access to the full library of 200 books costs $4.99 permonth or $49.99 per year. (A separate spinoff set of stories and activitiescalled Space Race appears to be entirelyfree.)

Exact usage and subscriber numbers areunavailable, but creator Conscious Content Media says Speakaboosis used “by thousands of students in hundreds of homes, classrooms andlibraries around the world” and that users read “an average of 50 storybooksper month and spend over two and a half hours reading on the service.”

Speakaboos also has an inexpensive Stories2Go app available for the iPhone and its iPad and Android apps are in development.