Scholastic, the world's largest publisher of children's books, is making a drive into the ebook market with its own dedicated store and reading app. Storia just launched in beta for Windows PCs, and is coming to iPad later this month. You get five free books with the app download, and the store currently has over 1,000 additional titles to choose from, sortable by grade, reading level, series, and more. Ebooks currently only make up five percent of the company's sales, and this represents its biggest drive yet into the children's digital market.

Storia ebooks appear to be proprietary and exclusive to Scholastic's platform — the publisher says that they won't work on other reading apps or devices due to the enhanced features. All Storia ebooks have dictionary support and the ability to log progress for parents to check up on, and some of the books on the store are designated as "Enriched" titles with interactive elements such as word searches and other puzzles. Mac, Android, and iPhone apps are also on the way, and the service is scheduled to launch in the fall with over 2,000 titles.