Reading Rainbow is beginning a publishing program that will be distributed by Independent Publishers Group. The first title is The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, a children's book by LeVar Burton and Susan Schaefer Bernardo, illustrated by Courtenay Fletcher, which will be published October 7.
Burton is an actor, director and producer known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in Roots and Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation. For 26 years, he was also the host and executive producer of the TV series Reading Rainbow.
RRKidz, which Burton owns with his business partner Mark Wolfe, holds global rights to the Reading Rainbow brand through a partnership with series creator WNED/Buffalo. The company has a popular educational app and recently completed a Kickstarter campaign to launch a web-based platform that will deliver thousands of books and video field trips into homes, schools and libraries throughout the country.