Chicago – Today VTech announced its Touch & Learn Activity Desk™ Deluxe and Go! Go! Smart Friends^® Enchanted Princess Palace™ earned a 2016 Gold Star Toy Award from Scholastic Parent & Child. The winners of the fourth annual awards program were chosen from hundreds of products reviewed by a team of Scholastic experts and real families. They were evaluated on their entertainment and educational value, quality, user-friendliness and ability to repeatedly engage a child.

"We are delighted that products across the VTech lines have been recognized by top organizations and testing programs like the Gold Star Toy Awards," said William To, President, VTech Electronics North America. "The versatile, interactive and expandable Touch & Learn Activity Desk Deluxe offers lasting play value and the Go! Go! Smart Friends Enchanted Princess Palace inspires imaginative play, making them both innovative, engaging, must-have items this holiday season."

"Our expert editors and panel of family testers were truly impressed with this year's selections," said Jamie Engel, Vice President and Publisher of Parent Content. "The Touch & Learn Activity Desk Deluxe and Go! Go! Smart Friends Enchanted Princess Palace encompass the qualities we look for when selecting Gold Star Award winners, providing the fun kids want with the developmental learning qualities parents look for."

Additional details about VTech's award-winning products can be found at www.vtechkids.com and include:

• Touch & Learn Activity Desk™ Deluxe: Touch & Learn Activity Desk™ Deluxe is a three-in-one desk with interactive activity cards that's expandable for more fun and discovery. The desk features an interactive desktop and five pages to explore that are filled with engaging content including letters, numbers, music, colors and more. Choose from eight expansion packs (each sold separately) that each focus on a specific curriculum like reading skills, animals and numbers. It also transforms from a desk into an easel and chalkboard with plenty of storage space for art supplies to encourage play and discovery. The LED display illustrates letter and number stroke order and how to draw basic shapes. For even more fun, toddlers can play with the toy telephone or listen to fun tunes on the music player. Enjoy hours of fun as kids create, discover and learn. (Ages 2-5 years, MSRP: US$54.99)

• Go! Go! Smart Friends^® Enchanted Princess Palace™: Explore each magical room in the Go! Go! Smart Friends^® Enchanted Princess Palace™. This epic palace expands to four feet long and has a variety of luxurious rooms including a ballroom, music room, kitchen, bedroom and observation tower. While exploring the palace with Princess Darla, place her on the five MagicPoint locations to experience her friendly personality, lights and more. When Princess Darla sits at her MagicChat tea set table with a friend (additional characters sold separately), they will interact by chatting and singing with each other. The palace also has a clock with a movable hand and three light-up buttons that introduce words, colors, letters and numbers and play magical melodies and sing-along songs. Toddlers can create a whole kingdom featuring princesses, princes, fairies, magical creatures and more with Go! Go! Smart Friends characters and playsets (sold separately). (Ages 18 months - 5 years, MSRP: US$59.99)

To see the full list of 2016 Gold Star Toy Award winners, visit scholastic.com/goldstartoys where parents can enter to win daily giveaways of the winning toys including the Touch & Learn Activity Desk Deluxe and Go! Go! Smart Friends Enchanted Princess Palace.

About VTech

VTech is a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children. As a pioneer in the learning toy category, VTech develops high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children's development and make learning fun. With a rich, almost 40 year history, VTech has not only established itself as a learning authority but also consistently remains at the forefront of innovation with multiple award-winning products. The company also has a broad range of award-winning infant and preschool products available in 24 different languages worldwide, with more than 100 new products introduced every year. VTech was awarded a prestigious 2015 Toy of The Year (TOTY) Award for its Go! Go! Smart Animals^® Zoo Explorers Playset™. In order to further strengthen VTech's position as a learning authority, the company's Expert Panel, with esteemed experts in reading, language arts, science, math, and child development, consult on new product introductions.

VTech Electronics North America, LLC is based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. VTech Electronics Limited is headquartered in Hong Kong with distribution globally.

For more information on VTech's additional product lines, visit www.VTechKids.com, www.facebook.com/VTechtoys on Facebook or follow @VTechToys on Twitter.

For more information about Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children's publishing, education and media company, visit the Company's media room: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com.