QED 2012

In 2013, we nominated the StarWalk Kids Media enhanced eBook platform and its accompanying Webby Honoree website, SeymourSimon.com, for Best Transmedia property in the Publishing Innovation Awards. As we wrote in our application: Our mission is to foster a love of science and nature in children from grades K-8, employing digital technologies to create compelling opportunities for real world science and nature experiences. We utilize the enhanced eBooks available via the StarWalk Kids streaming library in conjunction with the multitude of resources available on SeymourSimon.com, particularly the Seymour Science Blog to present children with multiple opportunities to engage with nature, write and publish their writing, share their digital photographs, watch videos and upload their own, and collect their own field observations (often using digital resources) to share with others. 

Although we did not win the overall category, both StarWalkKids.com and SeymourSimon.com were awarded the prestigious QED seal. The QED Seal (which stands for Quality, Excellence, Design) is considered the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” for ebooks and apps. The QED process consists of a 13-point checklist to ensure a high quality user experience. To ensure that an ebook title submitted for a QED will render well on the device a reader chooses, it is reviewed on three devices: a small, mobile-sized screen, an eInk reader-sized screen, and a tablet-sized screen. The QED is judged on the criteria established on the recommendation of the Publishing Innovation Awards Advisory Council, who are respected leaders in the digital production and design space. 

Click here to read more about the Publishing Innovation Awards.

Awards Holder

ALA Great Websites for Kids

In June 2012, SeymourSimon.com was selected for inclusion in the American Library Association’s 2012 list of Great Web Sites for Kids. 

The American Library Association selections for “Great Websites for Kids” are those considered the best web sites for ages birth to 14, outstanding in both content and conception. As applied to web sites for young people, “great” should be thought to include sites of especially commendable quality; sites that reflect and encourage young people’s interests in exemplary ways. Click Here to read more about this selection.

Webby Awards

SeymourSimon.com was selected as an Official Honoree for the Personal Blog/Website category in The 15th Annual Webby Awards! There are only seven sites selected in our category, and we are the only children’s site among the honorees (which include Martha Stewart/Omnimedia’s “The Martha Blog”!).

You can learn more about this honor and see the other honorees in the category by clicking this link.

Parents’ Choice Award

SeymourSimon.com received the Parents’ Choice® Award again in 2013, after having first been honored in 2011.

Designed to help parents and caregivers of all achievements and backgrounds make informed decisions about which new products are right for their children, the Parents’ Choice Awards is the nation’s oldest nonprofit program created to recognize quality children’s media. The Parents’ Choice Awards program honors the best material for children: books, toys, music and storytelling, magazines, software, videogames, television and websites. Parents’ Choice Foundation’s panels of educators, scientists, performing artists, librarians, parents and, yes, kids themselves, identify the very best products for children of different ages and backgrounds, and of varied skill and interest levels.The Parents’ Choice Awards committees look for products that entertain and teach with flair, stimulate imagination and inspire creativity. Judges are interested in how a product helps a child grow: socially, intellectually, emotionally, ethically, physically. Products must be free of bias. Above all, products must not extol violence.

The Parents’ Choice Awards program has established the benchmarks of achievement in children’s media. Placing a product in nomination for a Parents’ Choice Award in no way guarantees receipt of commendation. Products are put through their paces as jurors judge the learning value, the play value, the appeal and the cost. A product’s originality weighs heavily in the judges’ decisions.