Holt Products for Spanish Instruction and Live Ink Reading Help Win Three Prestigious Honors in Association of Educational Publishers Awards Program

AUSTIN, Texas, June 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Holt, Rinehart and Winston products were honored recently with wins in three categories of the 2005 Distinguished Achievement Awards sponsored by the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP). Holt Live Ink(R) Reading Help for Holt Online Learning won in the category for Special Needs Educational Materials, Hi/Lo Reading Materials for Children. Holt Expresate DVD Tutor won two awards: Best Video/DVD for Children and Best Interactive Feature in Children's Software.

"The AEP Distinguished Achievement Awards are one of the most prestigious honors in the education industry, and we are very pleased to be honored with three awards," said Greg Long, vice president of marketing at Holt. "We strive for the highest level of excellence in our products and work with the best content experts, designers, and editorial teams. This commitment to quality is a significant reason why our products are continually recognized as some of the best educational resources available today."

Holt Live Ink(R) Reading Help for Holt Online Learning was the first winner in the newly established award category for Hi/Lo Reading Materials. Live Ink Reading Help is exclusively available in the online versions of Holt textbooks and the technology helps individual students, of any reading proficiency, to increase comprehension of context. Live Ink Reading Help conveys visual cues to sentence structure through a patented method of re-formatting text in a visually friendly, cascading phrase style that helps students become better readers.

The Holt Expresate DVD Tutor complements Holt's new Spanish instructional program, Expresate (C)2006, and includes five types of video resources that immerse students in authentic language and culture with stories, language instruction video and video realia. The DVD Tutor integrates video resources with text and animation to provide direct instruction and extra practice for students. Master teachers explain grammar concepts in clear and engaging language and additional resources combine role-modeling, exposure to native speakers and vocabulary video. The DVD Tutor can be used on any DVD player connected to a TV, computer or video monitor.

Two other products were honored as finalists in the AEP Awards including Precalculus: A Multimedia Course in the category for Most Innovative Software for Children and Holt Physics in the category for Best Book Cover Design for Children's Books.

Precalculus: A Multimedia Course uses a CD-ROM/Internet hybrid technology to deliver instruction, practice, review, and assessment for precalculus. Lessons are delivered in video format, which are easy to follow, are highly engaging, and keep students focused on the topic at hand. An online supplement for each lesson includes interactive exercises with feedback, illustrated review notes, animations, and many other resources.

Holt Physics provides a balance between conceptual foundations and mathematically based skills, between traditional, time-tested physics and the latest in scientific thought and discovery. The cover, designed by Kay Selke, features an x-ray image of an energy-saving light bulb.

The AEP Distinguished Achievement Awards program recognizes diverse print, electronic, and instructional resources exhibiting superior content and educational value. Judging panels are drawn from a national pool of writing, publishing, and design experts in print and technology; education editors; educators; and curriculum experts. Three or four products are selected as finalists in each category and winners were announced at an awards banquet on June 8 in Washington, D.C.

About Holt, Rinehart and Winston

Holt, Rinehart and Winston is a leading publisher of textbooks and educational materials for grades six through 12 and is part of Harcourt Education, a global education provider serving students and teachers in PreK through grade 12, adult learners, and readers of all ages. The Harcourt companies are Harcourt School Publishers; Holt, Rinehart and Winston; Harcourt Achieve (including the Rigby, Steck-Vaughn, and Saxon imprints); Harcourt Assessment; Classroom Connect; and Harcourt Trade Publishers. For further information, please call 800-992-1627 or visit http://www.hrw.com/ or http://www.harcourt.com/.

Harcourt Education is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc. (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), which is a world-leading publisher and information provider. It is owned equally by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV .