NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Susan McNeill 302-996-9054
www.McNeillBrighterMinds.com

Reader’s Digest and McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds
Team Up, Create Word Power Challenge Game

Wilmington, Delaware -- TheReader’s Digest Association recently entered into a licensing agreement with the toy and game manufacturer McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds to create a new line of games and related merchandise based on the popular Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge.

The Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge is the nation’s premier middle school vocabulary competition and an educational outreach program of Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. The event invites students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and the Department of Defense Dependent Schools, as well as home-schooled students, to participate each year. More than two million middle school students and 7,000 schools will participate in this year’s Word Power Challenge, which awards $50,000 in college scholarships.

The first game, slated for stores in fall 2007, is the Reader’s Digest Word Power Challenge Game. Drawing from the perennially popular “Word Power” feature in Reader’s Digest magazine, this game provides a fun and entertaining way of gaining a more sophisticated working vocabulary. By utilizing facts from four categories; Word origin, Fill-in-the-blank, Definition and Synonyms, players gain an intensive knowledge of each word in the deck. Coupled with vibrant visual reminders, players develop an incredible arsenal of powerful words in a challenging way.

“This exciting game is a great way to sharpen players' vocabularies, boost their language skills, and foster a love of language,” says McNeill Designs President Martin Uniacke. “But most importantly, the game is truly fun to play. Kids of all ages -- and even adults --will find that they are laughing while learning.”

The Reader’s Digest Word Power Challenge Game will be available exclusively at over 600 Barnes & Noble retail locations throughout the 50 states and District of Columbia. For international customers, the products will be available on the Barnes & Noble website, the internet’s largest bookseller, at www.barnesandnoble.com.

“Linking McNeill Designs with a national icon like Reader’s Digest is an exciting opportunity for our firm,” explains company Chairman Donald McNeill. Founded in 2004, this 40+ person creative team produces games and toys of all kinds. In addition to industry-wide recognition and numerous awards, the firm’s unique products have been featured, reviewed, and recommended in a variety of national media outlets such as the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Tom Vasel’s web cast The Dice Tower, the Mensa society’s publication Parenting for High Potential, the language enthusiast’s Verbatim, the toy and game industry standard Playthings, and the gaming enthusiast magazine Knucklebones.

Upcoming new products by McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds include additional specialty You’ve been Sentenced! Add-On Decks, each of which focus on a particular theme. Pop Culture,  Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Sports, and a variety of other decks which are all slated for a Fall 2007 release.

Also slated for beta release at Gen Con ‘07 is an online version of You’ve been Sentenced! which will contain many of the same elements that made the card version so successful. “The online version has both the look and feel of the original, with similar graphics and colors,” says Don McNeill, Chairman. “Players can easily manipulate word cards on their screen to create sentences and play is timed. But best of all, players can instantly communicate with one another through a powerful chat function. This allows the online version of You’ve been Sentenced! to retain its most important elements – interaction between players, discussion of one another’s sentences, and the all-important voting segment.”

For more information about McNeill Designs, its products, and people, please contact Susan McNeill at 302-996-9054 or visit www.mcneillbrighterminds.com

Future offerings include several spin-off versions of You’ve Been Sentenced! now underway including language translations versions, an educational color-coded version, and licensed specialty versions. The firm is also currently developing numerous other unique games, toys, and products for 2007.

For a nationwide store locator, please visit www.McNeillBrighterMinds.com. For more information about McNeill Designs, its products, and people, please contact Susan McNeill at 302-996-9054 or visit www.McNeillBrighterMinds.com.

###