April 1, 2011

As our regular readers know, there is a new SCIENCE JOKE or RIDDLE every Friday on the homepage of SeymourSimon.com. This week’s joke: Did you hear about the dog that could do multiplication? Click here to see the rest of the joke.

And since it’s New Joke Friday, we thought we’d let you in on some exciting news. Seymour Simon and his very funny illustration partner, Dennis Kendrick, are almost finished with a new eBook! Readers who are fans of the SILLY DINOSAUR RIDDLES book will want to be on the lookout for this one. It is more of your favorite animals jokes and riddles, this time about animals that you might find in a zoo.

You will be able to buy this exciting new book, and lots of other exclusive Seymour Simon eBooks when you download Seymour Simon’s free mobile app for your iPhone, iPod Touch or Android device. And, there will be a new, enhanced version just for the iPad in the coming weeks.

SILLY ZOO ANIMAL JOKES AND RIDDLES should be available in early May.

March 31, 2011

Dear readers,

I have encouraged many of you to download and enjoy my mobile phone app, SCIENCE FUN TO GO. The app is free, but it also offers users the option to purchase Seymour Simon eBooks which they download to their phones. We have been so pleased that some of you were willing to purchase and try out this new concept of mobile books.

However, owners of the app discovered that it stopped working this past Monday, 3/28. The company that created the app experienced a system outage on the server that stores the data, and four days later, the app is still not working properly. Many of you have found that either you cannot launch it at all, or if you have deleted the app and re-installed it, Android users may find that your books longer be there or you are asked to purchase them again.

This is a completely unacceptable experience, for which I take full responsibility. As an author whose books are often used in schools, I hold myself to the highest standard and work to create top quality products which Parents, Teachers, Librarians can trust. At the moment, the SCIENCE FUN TO GO app is not living up to that standard. 

Here is what we can tell you right now.

For iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Users: As of this writing, you are continuing to find that your app simply doesn’t open. The updated, rebuilt app is currently with Apple, and as soon as it is approved (a matter of days), you will be able to go to the App Store on your device and update the SCIENCE FUN TO GO app. Once you update it, you will find that the books you have purchased are still in the Books section of the app, and you will be able to use them just as you always did.

For Android Users:  The updated app is already available. Open the Android Market on your phone, press the MENU button, and click on MY APPS. That will automatically download all the updates available for your phone, including SCIENCE FUN TO GO. That will restore the app, but without the books that you previously purchased through PayPal. In the next few days, you will receive a notification from our partner, a company called SachManya, refunding the cost of any books that you have previously purchased.

Thank you for bearing with us as we try to sort out these vexing technical issues. Our partners at SachManya have worked tirelessly to get this situation resolved, and have already put new procedures and redundancies in place that will hopefully prevent this sort of thing from happening again in the future.

Seymour Simon 

December 18, 2010

The mobile books for sale inside my SCIENCE FUN TO GO app have been reduced to $1.99 until December 24. We want to make it affordable for parents, educators and families to try downloading a book for their kids. I know that some authors and publishers are worried about eBooks, feeling that it is very important for kids to read "real books."

I have to say that I respectfully disagree with my colleagues on this point. I think that the important thing is that kids are reading - and especially, that they are reading non-fiction as well as fiction. I don’t really care if they are reading a physical book, enjoying a book on a computer, or even taking their eBooks along with them on a mobile phone. They are all "books," and the most important thing is for young kids to have a great reading experience.

Earlier this year, Scholastic surveyed more than 2,000 children ages 6 to 17 and their parents about digital reading. About 25 percent of the children surveyed said they had already read a book on a digital device, including computers and e-readers. Fifty-seven percent between ages 9 and 17 said they were interested in doing so. Among parents who either owned an e-reader or planned to buy one in the next year, eighty-three percent said they would allow or encourage their children to use the e-readers.

Francie Alexander, the chief academic officer at Scholastic, said:

"I didn’t realize how quickly kids had embraced this technology. Clearly they see them as tools for reading - not just gaming, not just texting. They see them as an opportunity to read."

The books that I have adapted for the SCIENCE FUN TO GO app include some gorgeous, illustrated, non-fiction picture books of mine that publishers have allowed to go out of print. Both the illustrators and I are happy to be able to give them new life as eBooks.

There will also be three additional books coming online in the next week, including a brand new, just completed book called WHY DO PUPPIES DO THAT? That means that by the end of this week, there will be seven of my eBooks available through my SCIENCE FUN TO GO app, none of which are available any other store. We have priced them for this week only at $1.99 so that families who are getting new digital readers for the holidays can try them out with their kids.

Please give one of these eBooks a try, and write and let me know what you think. The beauty of this digital age is that we are creating and publishing directly for you, my readers. Your feedback will be heard and will inform what we create in future.

Thank you, and happy holidays to all!

- Seymour

December 17, 2010

Now you can see a preview of one of the original eBooks that you can download from Seymour’s new SCIENCE FUN TO GO app. At only $3.99, it’s fun and it builds early literacy skills for your favorite elementary schooler! CLICK HERE to view a sample of how the "Read to Me" functionality works for younger kids.

We’ve also heard rumors that there may be some price discounting before Christmas. Keep checking back here (or on the app itself) for details!