Sylvia Rouss is an author and educator who has taught preschool in Jewish Community Centers and Synagogues in Los Angeles and Baltimore since 1973. She was awarded the Samuel Glasner Creative Teaching Award in 1989 from the Baltimore Board of Jewish Education and continues to write for the preschoolers in her classroom as she finds they are her best critics. Sylvia has also done book readings and parent/teacher workshops throughout the country.

Raised in Southern California, Sylvia received her Bachelors Degree from California State University, Fresno. Her first book, Fun With Jewish Holiday Rhymes, was published by UAHC Press in 1992. Three rhymes from this book were also included in the book Hanukkah, Oh, Hanukkah published by Bantam Press. In 1993, her second book, Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah, was published by Kar-Ben Copies Inc. Because of the book's popularity, Sylvia was asked to write other Sammy Spider holiday books. There are currently six books in the series, including Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah, Sammy Spider's First Shabbat, Sammy Spider's First Tu B'Shevat, Sammy Spider's First Purim and Sammy Spider's First Passover. Sylvia has written a seventh book for the series, Sammy Spider's First Trip to Israel, which Kar-Ben hopes to publish next year.

Since teaming up with illustrator Holly Hannon on The Littlest Frog, her first book for Pitspopany Press, Syliva has gone on to complete two more rhyming books for the Littlest series, The Littlest Pair, a tale of termites on Noah's Ark, and The Littlest Candlesticks, destined to be a Shabbat favorite for little girls. Her latest book is Tali's Jerusalem Scrapbook.

Sylvia has been happily married for 27 years and is very proud of her 3 adult children - a teacher, a magazine editor, and a college student in Israel.