Meet Heckerty, Heckerty Cook, and Heckerty’s Valentine deliver hours of reading fun for pre-schoolers and early readers while helping with vocabulary and reading skills.

Scottsdale, AZ – June 12, 2014 –Summer is here, and parents are beginning the annual search for summertime activities that kids can enjoy in cars, airplanes, or at home while seeking a respite from summertime heat. Three enchanting eBooks from Broomstick Productions, the award-winning creator of the #1 mobile app in the children’s learning category, have arrived just in time to keep kids spellbound with hours of fun and vocabulary boosting English skills.

The latest additions to the continuing saga of the gentle, bumbling green-faced witch who has captivated children around the world include:

• Meet Heckerty
• Heckerty Cook
• Heckerty’s Valentine

The new eBooks, available now on the Kindle Store on Amazon.com, Apple’s iTunes store, Google Play or the publisher’s website, join mobile apps for iPhone and iPad, Android smartphones and tablets, and Kindle Fire ebook readers and paperback books of the same titles. 

According to Jan Ziff, CEO of Broomstick Productions, the decision to offer the company’s children’s stories in multiple formats was driven by Heckerty’s young fans and their parents. “When I was a child, I loved my mother’s story about Heckerty and her cat Zanzibar. But I had to wait to hear my favorite story until mum had time to tell them,” Ziff recalls. “When we published Meet Heckerty as a mobile app, we started hearing from parents who said, ‘My child loves it – now I am faced with a temper tantrum when I take away my phone. Please publish it as a book they can keep so I can get my phone back!’”

All of the Heckerty stories are written for ages 3-9 (grade levels pre-K to third grade). In the eBook format, the stories can be read to the youngest readers, and older readers read it for themselves. With the free app version, the story comes to life with interactive animations, and children have the choice of having the a single unfamiliar word or the entire story read to them in the perfect BBC presenter’s tones that Ziff honed in her years as an international journalist and radio personality. In addition, there are free coloring pages in the app and on the company website that can help families keep the magic going. Four additional titles will be added to the collection later this year. 

About Heckerty

The Heckerty books, apps, and eBooks are based on a proven, successful series of children stories, originally created and brought to life by one of Britain’s most internationally successful storytellers. Each Heckerty story helps children (and adults) improve English reading and vocabulary. As children play with the app or enjoy the stories, they discover important life values. The apps allow readers to choose between six languages (simplified or traditional Chinese, Spanish, French and German as well as English), so they are a wonderful ESL tool. 

The Heckerty collection brings gentle, magically quirky British stories in the style of Winnie the Pooh, Beatrix Potter and Alice in Wonderland into the 21^st century thanks to the talents of skilled actors, musicians, visual artists, technical wizards and production experts. The result is a unique blend of quality English storytelling merged with top 21st century technology and creative talent to create stories and activities your kids will love and play for hours on end!

All of the Heckerty eBooks are available in the Kindle Store on Amazon.com or the Get Heckerty page at http://www.heckerty.com. Smartphone and tablet apps are available FREE on iTunes, the Amazon Android store and the Google Play store, and paperback books are available on Amazon.com.