My dream job…! The new host of #Jeapardy #bydhttmwfi #notevenkidding

— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) March 27, 2013

Reading Rainbow host, actor and book app creator LeVar Burton recently tweeted that hosting the quiz show Jeopardy would be “my dream job.” His tweet inspired an online petition that is already nearing 1,000 signatures.

This GalleyCat editor agrees that Burton would make a “intelligent and kind host” for the show (he already starred as a celebrity contestant).

What do you think? Sign the petition at this link.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In the video embedded above, Reader Rainbow host LeVar Burton shares the message that introduced an entire generation of readers to books on PBS: “a book lets you zoom through time and space.

Symphony of Science sound artist John D. Boswell created the short and inspiring video, turning classic Reading Rainbow footage into an auto-tuned song. What was your favorite Reading Rainbow book?

Check it out: “For years, LeVar Burton and Reading Rainbow have taught kids everywhere about the power of books and imagination. To this day, the show continues to encourage a love of reading and connect children to the world they live in through quality literature — so they can “go anywhere, be anything.” With this remix, John Boswell has captured those enduring lessons in song — a fitting tribute to an important part of PBS history.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Many parents worry about how their kids use digital devices. Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton offered some simple advice for making sure our kids get the most out of this new technology. Here’s an excerpt from the video interview (embedded above):

These devices are not going to go away. There’s always going to be a lot of mindless (and mind-numbing) content available. It’s always necessary to have balance, and we want to be a part of that balance. We want to bring the alternative. I think the technology is capable of so much more and kids deserve more. They will use what we give them. I believe all media is educational. The question is, what are we teaching them?

Follow these links to get more literary and media advice from Burton.

Part 1: LeVar Burton on the Future of Reading Rainbow & Printed Books

Part 2: ‘We’re sacrificing our kids’

Part 3: How Science Fiction Influences Technology

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week, including David Foster Wallace on your Mac’s thesaurus, the best bookstores on Tumblr and LeVar Burton talking about Reading Rainbow (video embedded above).

Click here to sign up for GalleyCat’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.

1. Major Bestsellers with More Than 150 One-Star Reviews

2. Audition For ‘Sex & The Single Girl’ Audiobook

3. Best Bookstores on Tumblr

4. How To Read Amazon Review Graphs

5. Free Sites to Promote Your eBook

6. The Lost History of Fifty Shades of Grey

7. David Foster Wallace on Your Mac Thesaurus

8. Chicken Soup for the Soul Publisher to Sell Chicken Soup

9. C.S. Lewis: ‘Your book bill ought to be your biggest extravagance’

10. LeVar Burton: ‘We’re sacrificing our kids’

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When the iPad debuted in 2010, Star Trek The Next Generation‘s LeVar Burton wasn’t as surprised by the device as others. After all, characters on his show and the original series were beaming each other up, video chatting and using touch devices way before Apple.

“As a fan of science fiction, I’m not surprised because I recognize that science fiction literature tends to ask us what I believe to be are two of the most powerful words in language in combination: what if,” Burton said in our final Media Beat interview.

“I believe there was some kid who watched those original episodes of Star Trek… That kid grew up, became an engineer, a designer of product, and is responsible for a piece of technology in the flip cell phone that’s more prevalent now than toasters,” he continued. “You look at Bluetooth ear devices, Star Trek. You look at Flip cell phones, Star Trek. Devices, seeing devices for the blind inspired by Geordi‘s visor? Science fiction literature and pop culture really is a main conduit for how we invent our future reality.”

Yeah, Google Glass does look a little like this.

Part 1: LeVar Burton: By not focusing on reading, “We’re sacrificing our kids”
Part 2: LeVar Burton on the Future of Reading Rainbow & Printed Books

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If everyone loved Reading Rainbow, why in the world was it taken off the air? Politics, says, host LeVar Burton.

“That’s the story that a lot of folks don’t get. No Child Left Behind is doing exactly that, and so the mandate is to teach kids how to read, the rudiments of reading, and there was no money in the budget to foster a love of reading,” he said in our Media Beat interview. “Look, we have spent so much money on the machinery of war in the last 10, 12 years, we are having to make really ridiculous choices. And we’re sacrificing our kids, literally sacrificing our kids.”

So, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, bought the rights to the name, launched a new company, RRKidz, and created the Reading Rainbow app featuring over 150 books, video field trips and classic clips from the TV show.

“We have value, a product that is of value for families, that is economic and full of the kind of enriching content that the brand, Reading Rainbow, has always been known for,” said Burton.

Part 1: LeVar Burton on the Future of Reading Rainbow & Printed Books
Part 3: LeVar Burton on How Science Fiction Influences Technology

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Who didn’t love Reading Rainbow as a kid?  The iconic 80s show used songs, celebrities and video to actually make literature fun. Well, times they are a changin’, says the show’s onetime host, LeVar Burton.

“Television was the medium and the technology of its time in the 80s and 90s, but you know better than I do that this is the digital-native generation,” he explained in our latest Media Beat interview. “And they consume most of their screen time on mobile devices. That’s where we wanna be. If you want to be where they are, you’ve gotta be on a mobile device.”

Furthermore, Burton said, the days of printed books are also numbered. ”We’re looking at a future, whenever it comes, that we’re gonna consume most of the reading that we do on some kind of electronic device or another. We will still have printed books; they’ll never go away. I think our emotional attachment to them is too strong. What it will do, I believe though, is make the books that we own more valuable to us, more precious.”

(And watch the full interview for a freakin’ awesome homage to that beloved RR theme song.)

Part 2: LeVar Burton: By not focusing on reading, “We’re sacrificing our kids”
Part 3: LeVar Burton on How Science Fiction Influences Technology

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here’s more from the release: “The Twitter handle @ReadingRainbow was taken and held by someone not using it and not connected with the show. Yesterday evening, Burton tweeted to the account in hopes of obtaining the famous Twitter handle to promote a new Reading Rainbow App he is developing with his company RRKIDZ. He tweeted just after 7 PM PST last night, and less than 2 hours later had the account in his hands! It just goes to show the power of Reading Rainbow and LeVar Burton!”

If you want more details about Burton’s new project, visit the RRKidz site and sign up for updates.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The new website includes Burton’s trademark slogan from the show: “Coming Soon … but you don’t have to take my word for it.” Burton summarized the show with a twitter hashtag: “Reading Rainbow for today’s connected kids.”

Here’s more from FishbowlLA: “Fifteen months after indicating to New York Times columnist David Pogue at a Macworld event that he was raising money for a start-up, actor LeVar Burton is fully focused on the twain of education and enhanced children’s e-books. He tells Venture Beat that his company RRKidz has got $3 million in seed funding and is compiling a library of 300 iPad and Smartphone titles, with roughly 50 of those to be voiced by Burton himself. The actor is partnered on the project with Buffalo’s WNED-TV, rights-holder to the 1983-2006 PBS series Reading Rainbow.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

UPDATE: Burton tweeted this afternoon: “Having amazing conversations with some powerful partners who want to join us in the Reading Rainbow Flash Mob IT’S ON!” Follow this link to get updates about the event. Burton created the Twitter hashtag “#readingrainbowflashmob” to spread the news about the flash mob.

According to Burton’s Twitter feed, a location-based commerce platform made the original offer: “Someone posted via @Zaarly a request to sing the Reading Rainbow theme with me, and are apparently willing to pay good money!” After that, Burton added singing to the mix, linking to the show’s theme song: “Could we really pull off a Reading Rainbow flash mob… with everyone singing?”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Instead of doing our traditional year-in-review post, we’ve decided to collect the ten most popular stories on GalleyCat each month–sharing the stories that mattered most to our readers. Looking back at these headlines, we can see the hopes, fears, and distractions that obsessed the publishing industry in 2010. Follow this link to see the rest of the year unfold.

1. Reading Rainbow Could Return, Host Hints on Twitter
2. How to Design a Book Cover: 6 Hours of Work in 2 Minute Video
3. Best Book Editors on Twitter
4. How to Choose a Font for Your Book
5. Michael Lewis Faces Amazon Kindle Critics
6. Reviewing Day Job Salaries of Famous Authors
7. Literary Agent, Michael Bourret
8. Amazon’s Direct Attack Against Bookstores?
9. Young Author Cuts Six Figure Deal for YA Trilogy
10. HarperStudio Ponders Future After Bob Miller

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Actor LeVar Burton has 1.6 million Twitter followers, and treated them all to some news over the weekend. Here’s the tweet: “You heard it here first… Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in th works! Stay tuned for more info. But, you don’t have to…”

Reading Rainbow ran from 1983 until 2006, introducing children to a new book each episode. Burton has continued to interact with his fans on Twitter, and this is not the first rumored return of the show. In 2009 the former host left this tweet: “Want y’all to know that I’m seriously moving forward with an idea for a new version of a Reading Rainbow like show. Webisodes for adults.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.