While publishers have been scrambling to find ways to make money from new technology, an author and professional storyteller has patented an innovation that can be easily adapted by publishers to create a new format. Jehan Clements's breakthrough is the "horizontal spine," a format that allows teachers and parents to read the text of a storybook while the illustration is facing the audience.
Clements, through his Tarrytown, N.Y., firm the Storyteller Company, is looking to license the Flip Over Picture Book concept to publishers. "We've had lots of positive feedback from librarians and teachers," said Jacqueline Alger, v-p, business development, of Storyteller, "and we're in discussions with several publishers." The flip-over format can be applied to a wide range of children's materials, Alger said, not only picture books. "Publishers can apply the concept to existing curriculum," Alger said.
Clements has received a second patent for Do-it-yourself Flip Over Picture Books that students can use when creating their own books in a school publishing center.
