Washington, DC (PRWEB) January 29, 2014 -- Zoobean, a website dedicated to building children’s literacy by curating books, apps, and expert resources for each individual child, is launching a new subscription option that will exclusively offer web-based, personalized recommendations and reading guides.
This new option serves as an alternative to the company's existing subscription model, which includes shipping a handpicked book each month, and gives parents a more affordable alternative to the home delivery option.
Starting this week, Zoobean will offer a “Personal Recommendations and Digital Guides” service, which provides families with weekly book and app recommendations as well as detailed reading guides and app companions. Parents may then choose whether to pick up the individually recommended books from a local library or favorite bookseller. App recommendations are linked to the Apple App Store and Amazon for Android.
“We have come to see that our customers deeply value the additional content we provide,” says Jordan Lloyd Bookey, Zoobean’s “Chief Mom” and Google’s former Head of K-12 Education. “According to the Pew Research Center, seventy-two percent of families live in ‘library households,’ and most have their preferred places to buy books directly, so it just makes sense to provide our personalized recommendations and resources as stand-alone offerings. This way, we give people what’s most relevant, and most affordable, for their one-of-a-kind kids.”
Zoobean combines the perspectives of librarians and educators with a proprietary recommendation engine, and makes selections based on each individual child’s age, interests, reading level, and other considerations. Currently, each child receives a book handpicked just for him or her, like a highly personalized book of the month club.
Recommended books are based on Zoobean categories such as “Not So Pink Girls” or “Trains, Planes, and Transportation.” Additionally, the child’s parent receives a digital reading guide along with personalized app recommendations.
In recent years, box services have proliferated, and there are many in the children’s space. These services generally have limited customization and prices exceeding $15 per month. With its new web-based offering, starting at $2.99 per month, Zoobean is moving outside of the box.
The company was started in May of last year by Bookey and her husband, former Washington, DC Teacher of the Year Felix Brandon Lloyd, who serves as Zoobean’s CEO, and is committed to helping kids and parents find the right books and apps to encourage literacy. Says Lloyd, “We are focused on helping parents navigate the noisy world of e-commerce, particularly as we better understand the importance of early childhood and personalized education. This is a natural extension for us, and we see it as a sharpening of our mission to help all kids imagine and achieve anything.”
About Zoobean:
Zoobean builds literacy by curating books, apps, and expert resources for each individual child. By combining the perspectives of librarians and educators with a proprietary recommendation engine, it makes selections based on each child’s age, interests, reading level, and other considerations. Zoobean offers both web-based and home delivery subscriptions through which families receive book and app selections. Selections are accompanied by digital guides to facilitate deeper engagement with each book or app. Monthly options start at $2.99 and are available at http://www.zoobean.com.
Jordan Lloyd Bookey, Zoobean, http://www.zoobean.com, +1 412.532.6267, [email protected]
Share this article