Burton told us that he was genuinely surprised with the public outcry that followed the show's cancellation. Kids have grown up with it for more than a quarter-century, and as such, there are some fairly strong emotional bonds at play here. According to Burton, maintaining the elements that made the show so magical was the most difficult aspect of the 18 months the team invested in the creation of the app. And, naturally, one reporter in attendance wanted to know what happened to the book report feature that played heavily in the TV show. Burton assured him that it's coming.

The app's interface is built around a series of floating islands, each based on a different genre. At present, the islands include "My Friends and Family," "Animal Kingdom," "Genius Academy" (science and math) and "Action Adventures & Magic Tales." More subject islands will be added as the app continues to be built out. Burton told us that the team was looking to move away from the more traditional e-book shelf format, into something that made reading "more of an adventure," much like the original program.

Click an island, and a you'll get a sliding list of of books on that topic, with "Just for You" recommendations at the top. Below this are short videos on the subject that retain the "field trips" the series was known for, featuring kids out in the world and Burton himself. Each island has three or four videos at the moment, including a "Classic Reading Rainbow Video" from the original show, so you can compare and contrast haircuts from over the years.

The reading interface should prove familiar to anyone who has checked read a children's book on an iPad before. You can can choose to read with or without narration (the book is aimed at three to nine-year-olds, so there are some pre-readers in the mix). You can either flip through the pages with a swipe or touch the arrow keys at the bottom. In order to harness the multimedia capabilities, the company has added animation to the pages, which can be accessed by tapping spinning sparkly circles. All in all, they've done a good job not overpowering the book format on that front -- after all, this is a learning tool, not a movie viewer.

Books can be "checked out" five at a time. The app borrows the traditional library format (which, sadly, may be lost on some young readers), letting you return the books you're finished with in a slot. The books you carry are stored in your Backpack, an aesthetically customizable digital carrying case.

Reading Rainbow arrives today in the App Store. A free download lets kids see the books and videos, but to actually read, they'll need a subscription, which runs $10 a month. There's also an introductory offer, which gets you six months for $30. The Reading Rainbow website, meanwhile, will offer up some supplementary content and a place for parents to add feedback -- and, no doubt, revel in some of the nostalgia around the TV show that may well have helped teach them to read so many years ago