Phoenix Publishing House Partners
with Collins Big Cat to Launch Leveled Reading Program
IN PHOTO: Ruth Ann C. Mercado (Phoenix Editorial-Production Department English Team-Managing Editor), Maria Pilar Fatima R. Sibal (President), Lee Newman (Harper Collins – Education Publisher), David John Wright (Harper Collins – Asia Sales Director), Rob Thompson (Harper Collins-Global Sales Director), Clara Sibal (Vice President for Business Development), Erika Yvette M. Velasco (Phoenix Editorial-Production Department English Team-Senior Associate Editor), and Dr. Rueben Velarde (Phoenix’s Assistant Vice President for Business Development Non-Print and Marketing)
Pasay City, Metro Manila – Phoenix Publishing House, in collaboration with HarperCollins, officially launched the Collins Big Cat Leveled Reading Program during the School Leadership Team Institute (SLTI) seminar held at Lanson Place Mall of Asia on February 3, 2025. The event gathered school leaders and educators from across the country to introduce a program aimed at enhancing early literacy skills among young Filipino learners.
Lee Newman, Education Publisher at HarperCollins introduced the Collins Big Cat series to the audience, detailing how the leveled readers support the Department of Education’s National Reading Program for Key Stage 1, emphasizing their role in developing foundational reading skills such as phonemic awareness, decoding, and sight word recognition.
Designed for children aged 3 to 11 years old, the program offers a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction titles tailored to different reading levels. Newman also showcased how these books not only foster a love for reading, but also help build essential literacy skills in a structured, engaging manner.
A key feature highlighted during the presentation was the integration of the AI-powered Sibs Read Along App, which provides real-time reading support. The app helps students with pronunciation, fluency, and overall reading confidence, offering a modern, interactive approach to literacy development.
Attendees included prominent figures from both Phoenix Publishing House and HarperCollins, such as Maria Pilar Fatima R. Sibal, President of Phoenix Publishing House; David John Wright, Asia Sales Director at HarperCollins; Rob Thompson, Global Sales Director at HarperCollins; Clara Sibal, Phoenix’s Vice President for Business Development at Phoenix; Ruth Ann C. Mercado, Managing Editor of Phoenix’s English Editorial Team; and Dr. Rueben Velarde, Assistant Vice President for Business Development Non-Print and Marketing at Phoenix.
The Collins Big Cat Leveled Reading Program will be available for school implementation starting School Year 2025–2026. Schools interested in incorporating the program into their curriculum may contact their respective Phoenix account executives or sales managers for more information and support.
This partnership marks an important step in promoting literacy in the Philippines, equipping young learners with the tools they need to become confident, lifelong readers, and resilient learners.
Dr. Ernesto Y. Sibal was one of the few Filipinos in academic publishing who can irrefutably lay claim to these three titles—Patriot, Pioneer and Innovator. A staunch patriot, Dr. Sibal fiercely advocated the vision of designating Filipino-authored books for young Filipino learners. This vision was enabled by the establishment of Alemar’s Bookstore in 1958, and through the foresight and drive of Alegria Rodriguez, who shared in the vision of her husband, she helped galvanize then fledgling Alemar's Bookstore as the place to go for textbooks and school needs, propelling it to become the first established bookstore chain in the country.
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