Random House Audio Adds Beacon Street Girls to Listening Library
B*tween Productions, home of the Beacon Street Girls®, today announced that Random House Audio's Listening Library has secured the audio rights to the 22 books in the tween phenomenon, the Beacon Street Girls, and has released the first three new audiobooks for the series.
Lexington, MA (PRWEB) August 18, 2008
B*tween Productions, home of the Beacon Street Girls®, today announced that Random House Audio's Listening Library has secured the audio rights to the 22 books in the tween phenomenon, the Beacon Street Girls, and has released the first three new audiobooks for the series. This announcement complements B*tween's distribution partnership with Simon & Schuster's tween imprint, Aladdin M! X (announced December 2007). B*tween's goal is to empower preteen girls through positive media and strong role models. The company works with experts to incorporate the latest childhood development research into its award-winning Beacon Street Girls book series and Web site.
"By adding audiobooks to our media mix we reach even more girls who are on 'the go' and who appreciate great storytelling," said Addie Swartz, chief executive officer, B*tween Productions. "Audiobooks are a great option for today's girl and for families who listen to books in the car."
"Random House actively sought the rights to the Beacon Street Girls," said Amanda D'Acierno, publisher, Listening Library. "We were attracted by a number of factors - the success of the series to-date, especially taking into account that this was being distributed by an independent publisher at the time, the legions of online 'super-fans' around the world and their receptivity to the positive messages being communicated in the books and online. This is a powerful integrated brand, poised to become a major contender in the tween market, but it also has its heart in the right place."
The Beacon Street Girls are designed to address issues around friendship and growing up, and portray socially responsible values in an exciting and fun contemporary setting. The characters were created so that the widest array of girls possible would be able to identify with them, their interests, strengths and challenges. The Beacon Street Girls was also one of the first series for tweens to include a main character with dyslexia, Maeve Kaplan-Taylor. Maeve plays an important role in helping girls who have difficulty in school see themselves as a Beacon Street Girl.
The release of first BSG audiobooks, performed with multiple cast members, coincided with the distribution of six Beacon Street Girls books, from Simon & Schuster. "Worst Enemies/Best Friends" is the first book in the series, "Time's Up" is number 12 and "Katani's Jamaican Holiday" is a Beacon Street Girls Special Adventure. All three are now available in both home and library version packaging. The Listening Library is planning to release three more titles in the fall.
About the Beacon Street Girls
The Beacon Street Girls® brand (BSG) is specifically designed to celebrate the potential in every tween - those girls between the ages of 9 and 13 who are "between toys and boys(TM)." The Beacon Street Girls, whether online at Beacon Street Girls (http://www. BeaconStreetGirls. com) or in the widely popular book series, written under the pen name Annie Bryant, are shaped by leading experts in adolescent development and current research on how to positively impact girls' self-esteem. The Beacon Street Girls offer a fresh, exciting and healthier media alternative to today's MTV-style world. Fans from 174 countries and their parents have embraced the Beacon Street Girls as role models who are "just like me." The Beacon Street Girls world and Club BSG can be found online at http://www. beaconstreetgirls. com (http://www. beaconstreetgirls. com)
B*tween has partnered with leading children's books publisher Simon & Schuster, adding the Beacon Street Girls to their tween imprint Aladdin M! X®. Random House's Listening Library® is distributing audiobooks. More than 580,000 Beacon Street Girls books have been sold to date. Beacon Street Girls books are available wherever books are sold.
About Random House Audio Publishing Group
The Random House Audio Publishing Group is a division of Random House, Inc., the U. S. company of Random House, the trade book publishing division of Bertelsmann AG.
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