Stephanie Kwolek has passed away at the age of 90

Stephanie Kwolek, the American chemist who invented Kevlar®, has passed away.

Countless lives have been saved using products made with Kevlar®, a superstrong fiber invented by Stephanie Kwolek. From bullet-resistant vests to brake pads, her efforts have made the world a safer place.

Written for the upper elementary reader, this title (and the others in the Genius Inventors and Their Great Ideas series) are available in library, paperback, and ebook formats, and can be purchased through your preferred vendor, local bookstores, bluewaveclassroom.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Earth Day

Written for the elementary reader, I Love Our Earth is a series that consists of six titles, with each title covering a different environmental issue. These easy-to-read titles include color photographs that bring the text to life.

Correlated to the Common Core College and Career Readiness Standards, these titles are available in library, paperback, and eBook formats. They can be found through your preferred vendor, bluewaveclassroom.com, local bookstores, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

New 2014 series on Insects!

Zoom In on Insects is written for the beginning reader. Each of the 6 titles covers a different insect. Color photographs show the insects in their habitat, as well as up close images of the insect's features. Written by Melissa Stewart, these books are sure to please the young insect lover!

Available in library, paperback, and e-book formats, these books can be found at your preferred vendor, local bookstores, enslow.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Some fun Halloween facts

Did you know that trick-or-treating was stopped at one point in time? Because of a sugar shortage during World War II, children were not allowed to trick-or-treat. People were asked to cut back on the amount of sugar they used, so many people switched to using honey to sweeten their food.

Did you know that carving jack-o-lanterns began a few hundred years ago? People in Ireland carved potatoes and turnips, and when they immigrated to the United States they brought that skill with them. When they arrived in America, they found that pumpkins could be carved just as easily.

These facts (and more!) can be found in Kooky Halloween Jokes to Tickle Your Funny Bone by Linda Bozzo. This title is part of the Funnier Bone Jokes series. All six titles in the series are available in library, paperback, and eBook versions.

Look for them at your local bookstore, or you can order them through your preferred vendor, enslow.com, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

Happy Halloween!

Joke books for upper elementary students

As part of the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards, the titles in the Funnier Bone Jokes series meet the standards for Reading, Writing, and Language.

This six-title series, written for third and fourth graders, not only includes fun and silly jokes, knock-knock jokes, limericks, tongue twisters, and fun facts for readers to tell each other, it also includes an activity section. In Funny Valentine's Day Jokes, readers are directed in creating their own valentine. Kooky Halloween Jokes instructs students in creating their own knock-knock jokes. Ho-Ho-Ho Christmas Jokes includes a make your own card activity. Corny Thanksgiving Jokes instructs the reader in how to write a limerick. The activity in Brainless Birthday Jokes shows the reader how to make a funny birthday card. The activity in April Fool's Day Jokes helps the reader pull a prank on a friend or family member.

All of the books in the Funner Bone Joke series are available in library, paperback, and eBook formats. They are available from your preferred vendor, your local independent bookstore, enslow.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Animal Bodies Up Close

Did you know that honeybees have more than two eyes? Or that squirrels use their tails for balance? Or that hippos have their ears on top of their heads? Or that polar bears have the best sense of smell of any animal on Earth? Or that a cow uses its tongue to clean its nose? Or that one sea star has hundreds of feet?

Discover the answers to these and other questions in the Animal Bodies Up Close series, written for the elementary reader. Each title in this series has a words to know section, a learn more section, and index, as well as a guessing game.

All six titles in this series fit Reading and Language Common Core standards, and are available in library, paperback, eBook, and book/eBook combos. They are available from your preferred vendor, enslow.com, your local independent bookstore, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

Looking for a craft book for Halloween?

978-0-7660-3730-4 Library
978-0-7660-3731-1 Paperback

Haunted House Adventure Crafts is a 32 page book written for upper elementary readers. Not only does this title give instructions on creating crafts, it also has a feature about creating your own story using those crafts.

Want to make a coffin? How about a mummy or a skeleton? How about a haunted house or Frankenstein? Following step-by-step instructions and using easily found materials, if readers are not interested in creating their own story, they can read the scary story included at the end of the book.

This title is available from enslow.com, your preferred vendor, local independent bookstores, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Biographies about Inventors

For STEM Friday, we are going to focus on two series for the upper elementary/lower middle school reader. Both series focus on inventors.


Genius Inventors and Their Great Ideas, a new series for 2013 and written for the upper elementary reader, takes the reader on a journey of learning how different inventions were made and created. One of the books in this series is about Stephanie Kwolek, the woman behind the creation of a fiber, made from petroleum and other products, that was eventually used in bullet-resistant vests.

Other titles in this series focus on Theodore H. Maiman, Les Paul, George Ferris, Philo T. Farnsworth, James Naismith, and Vivien Thomas. All of these titles are 48 pages in length, and are available in library, paperback, ePUB, single-user PDF, and multi-user PDF formats.



The Genius at Work! Great Inventor Biographies series is written for the lower middle school reader. This series also covers six inventors: Madam C. J. Walker, Igor Sikorsky, Thomas H. Gallaudet, W. K. Kellogg, Samuel Colt, and Ralph Baer. Each book is 32 pages in length, and is available in a library edition.

Titles from both of these series are available from your preferred vendor, enslow.com, local independent bookstores, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

It's National Inventors Month

Library ISBN 978-0-7660-3963-6
Paperback ISBN 978-1-4644-0130-5

Enslow has three series on inventors. The first one, I Like Inventors, is a new 2012 series for the elementary reader, and contains 6 books: Madam C. J. Walker created her own line of hair-care products; George Ferris invented the ferris wheel; Philo Farnsworth invented the television; Ralph Baer invented the home video game; James Naismith invented basketball; and Vivien Thomas was a doctor's assistant who invented a new surgery technique used on babies with heart problems.

Library ISBN 978-0-7660-2847-0

For the middle grade student, Genius at Work! Great Inventor Biographies has 13 titles perfect for those readers. This series features the inventors above, as well as Les Paul who created the electric guitar; Igor Sikorsky who created helicopters; W. K. Kellogg, the founder of the cereal company; Theodore Maiman who invented the laser; Samuel Colt, who invented a handgun that did not need to be reloaded; Thomas Gallaudet,  who created sign language; and Stephanie Kwolek, the inventor of the bullet-resistant vest.

Library ISBN 978-1-59845-050-7

Also for the middle grade student, Inventors Who Changed the World has 7 titles. These titles are longer in length than the other two series. Alexander Graham Bell, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Johannes Gutenberg, Louis Pasteur, Marconi and Tesla, Philo T. Farnsworth, and Thomas Edison are covered in this series.

All of these titles are available directly from Enslow or your preferred vendor.

It's Get Ready for Kindergarten Month

Library Binding 978-0-7660-4044-1

Looking for titles to add to your Kindergarten collection? Enslow has added two new series to its collection of preschool to grade one titles. Both of these series have been mentioned in blog entries recently.

There are eight titles in the All About Community Helpers series and All About Counting in the Biomes series contains six titles. Both of these series are new for fall 2012. With the addition of these two series, Enslow now has a total of fifteen preschool series.

All About American Symbols, All About Nature, and All About a Rainbow of Animals are the three series that were introduced in spring 2012.

All of these titles can be ordered directly from Enslow or your preferred vendor.

Also, don't forget to stock up on those crayons, pencils, paper, and other supplies!



 

Enslow's Drew Brees Biography Celebrates New Orleans Saints Player's Career

Library ISBN: 978-0-7660-3831-8
Paperback ISBN: 978-159845-299-0

Last night, New Orleans Saint superstar Drew Brees shattered the National Football League record for most passing yards in a single season. He surpassed the mark former Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino set a generation ago. Brees' remarkable accomplishment generated an unusual amount of respectful recognition, including the very rare sight of assembled media applauding him before a post-game press conference.

Read About Drew Brees, Enslow Publishers's new biography of the NFL star, offers young readers a timely, uplifting look at his inspiring life and career. Author David J. Torsiello's engaging work delivers the basics about the Texas-born, Purdue University-educated Brees. Enslow also offers a teacher's guide for this 24-page title, including useful activities and a brief assessment tool. The book is included among the six titles in Enslow's Guided Reading "I" series "I Like Sports Stars."

Read About Drew Brees is available in paperback from Enslow Publishers for $6.95. A library-bound version is also available to schools and libraries for $15.95 (a 25% discount from Enslow's list price for its library-bound titles).

New NBA Player Bios Ready for Start of Pro Basketball Season

Read About Carmelo Anthony
Paperback: 978-1-59845-297-6
Library-Bound: 978-0-7660-3833-2

The pro basketball season starts on Christmas Day. That means young readers will ask for and avidly read biographies of their favorite NBA stars. To satisfy this demand, Enslow Publishers is offering a number of slam dunk bios of marquee basketball players. Two of these books -- Read About Carmelo Anthony and Read About Kobe Bryant -- focus on the lives and professional accomplishments of these high-profile stars. Author David P. Torsiello's well-written, Guided Reading Level "I" text brings each athlete's story into vivid relief. Color photos interspersed through each 24-page book provide extra excitement for readers.

The two books are part of Enslow's six-book "I Like Sports Stars!" series. Each title is available in paperback via Enslow Classroom for $6.95. Library-bound editions are available for $15.95; the price represents a 25% school/library discount from Enslow's list price.

New K-3 Enslow Series Explores The Seasons

At this time of year, young readers wonder about the seasons and how they relate to their world. A wonderful tool to share with children during this process of discovery is Enslow's new "Why Do We Have Seasons?" series. This enriching set looks at each of North America's four seasons, using easy-to-read text and full-color photos to engage Grades K-3 readers in their exploration of these natural phenomena. Each 24-page book, such as Why Is It Spring? includes a scientific experiment to connect children with the science relevant to a specific season.

The four books in "Why Do We Have Seasons?" are included in Enslow's Spring 2012 releases. Each title will be available in January, 2012 directly from Enslow Publishers. Each library-bound book will cost for $15.95 (price represents a 25% school/library discount from Enslow's list price).

Sensible Book About Weird Weather for Grade K-3 Readers

Weird weather gets kids' attention. They talk about it at home, with their peers, and even in class. Leveraging that interest with page-turning books about unusual weather takes advantage of those situations, with benefits for young readers, teachers, and parents.

Enslow Publishers' Weird But True Weather is a 24-page book suitable for Grades K-3 readers. Author Carmen Bredeson's title features two-page spreads in which excellent color photographs support the Guided Reading Level "I" text. The book's nifty 9" x 7 1/2" trim size gives the illustrations and text a sense of scale young readers need. Its "Learn More" section offers useful, age-appropriate information for further print and web-based reading.

Weird But True Weather, part of Enslow's six-book "Weird But True Science" series, is avaiable in paperback for $6.95. A library-bound edition is available to schools and libraries for $15.95 -- a 25% discount from Enslow's list price.

New Bug series

Available this fall, for readers through first grade, Enslow will have a new series on bugs. All About Counting Bugs 1-2-3 uses simple colorful graphics to get young children reading and counting. Large type and sight words will engage readers.

Available in both library and paperback versions, the titles are:

Counting Ants 1-2-3

Counting Bees 1-2-3

Counting Butterflies 1-2-3

Counting Ladybugs 1-2-3

New Elementary title about the 4th of July coming soon

Elaine Landau has written a new elementary series of holiday books for Enslow. What Is the 4th of July? describes the traditions and symbols of this holiday, as well as includes a hands-on activity. This title (as well as the rest of the titles in the series) is available in both library and paperback bindings.

Other titles in the I Like Holidays! series include Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, and Veterans Day.

All of these titles will be available soon.

Interested in learning about animals?

Enslow's I Like Reading About Animals series now has a video associated with it.

Great for grades K–3, this series is available in both library and paperback versions.