An Interview with Lee German: Sylvan Dell Publishing

Michael F. Shaughnessy - August 24, 2009
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, New Mexico  

1)      I have heard that you have the “most technologically advanced eBooks in the world today”. Tell us about them. What makes them so technologically advanced?

Because there are no other eBooks on the market today that are even close to these in terms of selectable features and visual quality.

Auto-Flip, Auto-Read
Selectable Language (English and Spanish)
In Auto-Mode, just watch and listen as the book pages flip themselves and read aloud with no user intervention.
Switch back and forth between English and Spanish on the fly.
eBook Operating Instructions   Please click the and then test drive a few of the eBooks and you’ll better understand

2)      What kinds of subjects do you review?

                        We are not a review company.

Sylvan Dell is a young company on a serious mission to create picture books that excite children’s imaginations, are artistically spectacular, and have educational value.

All of our books start with fun, warm stories, generally fiction with math, science, or nature themes and are brought to life by art. We have 64 wonderful authors and illustrators on our team. We then add a 3-5 page “For Creative Minds” section that includes fun facts, crafts, vocabulary and games to reinforce the educational value and to support National Science and Math Standards. Finally, each book is carefully vetted by experts in the field including scientists and educators from NASA, NOAA, SeaWorld, Houston Zoo and various nature centers and aviaries.

The books are wonderful in themselves but what we are really about is our online presence and providing online cross-curricular resources for each title. For teachers with projection or smartboards, or for any child with computer access, our eBooks and free resources are amazing. Each book homepage has these same features... click any image above or click the following links to see samples from our book Whistling Wings...

3)      What do you mean by “next generation e-books”?

First generation are flat pdfs and that play nicely on Kindles

Second Generation introduced 3D dynamic format with page flipping and full color

Third Generation included mp3 player with continuous stream audio not locked to pages which children or teachers could play and pause and manually advance the pages while listening to the audio

Fourth Generation added selectable language option but always restarted at the books beginning and still manual page advance only

“Our Next Generation” incorporates all of the above but adds the biggest single feature of the book which is Auto-Flip and Auto-Read and Selectable Language and Language changes remain on the same page.

4)      How do you teach science and math through literature?

5)      Do you have any educational software?

No everything we have is web based. No hardware! No Software!

Everything we do is works with a broadband connection and MAC or PC operating systems.

6)      Do you have a web site? Yes and our address is below

Sylvan Dell Publishing

976 Houston Northcutt Blvd., Suite 3

Mount Pleasant, SC 29464

843-971-6722, 877-958-2600 (toll free), 843-216-3804 (fax)

www.SylvanDellPublishing.com

or way to get a catalog?

We can send paper catalogs but prefer to stay green and you look at our website or e-Catalog for info …. All on our homepage. Please click the catalog image or links below.

7)      Tell us about this school resource grant. Please click the School Resource Grant link below.

In addition to the trial offered above, we are continuing our School Resource Grant program, which last year awarded grants to 2,600 schools nationwide, including 3 in New Mexico (shown below).

8)      What have I neglected to ask?

                                If you have further questions, please call and we can go into greater depth by phone

All the best, Lee

Lee German
Publisher
Sylvan Dell Publishing 
976 Houston Northcutt Blvd., Suite 3
Mount Pleasant, SC  29464
843-971-6722 (off), 877-958-2600 (toll free), 843-216-3804 (fax)