Starred review in Library Media Connection

Genius Inventors and Their Great Ideas, a series in the Enslow Elementary imprint, was given a starred review in the October 2014 issue of Library Media Connection.

Here is an excerpt from that review:

"In this fantastic series, each book covers a general overview of the subject’s childhood and their goals…The series would be a great opener for a biography unit, genius hour, invention convention, or science fair."

These titles are available in library, paperback, and eBook formats and are available from your preferred vendor, local bookstores, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

School Library Journal review of Zoom In On Insects series

A review of the six titles in the Zoom In On Insects series appears in the August 2014 issue of School Library Journal. Here is an excerpt of that review:

"...these close-up images will engage children—particularly Grasshoppers and Dragonflies."

Geared toward the elementary reader, all of the titles in this series are available from your preferred vendor, independent bookstores, enslow.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. They are available in library, paperback, and eBook formats.

New crafts series for fall 2014

Enslow Elementary will be publishing a series of four titles, Fun and Festive Crafts for the Seasons, for fall 2014. Each 48 page book looks at a different season and gives step-by-step instructions on creating different crafts while learning about that particular season. Each title has eight crafts, including puppets and masks made out of various objects and materials.

All four books (and the crafts inside of them) were written and created by Randel McGee. These titles will be available in library and paperback formats. You can pre-order them through your preferred vendor, your local bookstore, enslow.com, amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Zoom In on Insects reviewed in latest issue of Booklist

Enslow's Zoom In on Insects series, new for spring 2014, was recently reviewed in the June 1 & 15, 2014 issue of Booklist.

Here is an excerpt from the review:

"The Zoom in on Insects! series does just what good science books for a young age group should: offer facts in short but easily understandable texts. Clear and engaging photos help whet readers' appetites to learn more. The titles follow a pattern, introducing habitats, body parts, and how the titular subject evolves…The best part of the series is the wonderfully crisp photos…"

The books cited in the review are Zoom In on Bees, Zoom In on Butterflies, Zoom In on Grasshoppers, and Zoom In on Bugs. The other two titles, Zoom In on Dragonflies and Zoom In on Fireflies were listed as "also recommended from this series."

These titles, written for the elementary reader by Melissa Stewart, are available in library, paperback, and eBook formats, and are available from your preferred vendor, local bookstore, enslow.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Meet our author, Loren Spiotta-DiMare

As an avid animal lover,Loren has been writing books and magazine articles about various animals for over 30 years. Her current personal menagerie consists of six beloved dogs, numerous pet birds, a rabbit, and a Koi pond. She has been horseback riding on and off throughout her entire life. Five years ago, Elwood, a Quarter Horse, joined the family. "The bond I've developed with Elwood is like no other," Loren says. "Since he is my first horse, I've created a strong support team to care for him including: my trainer, barn manager, vet, farrier, even an equine massage therapist! I now also have a strong social network of friends who also own and love horses. I bring all of my experiences with Elwood, and horses in general, to my writing about them."

Loren is the author of a new Enslow series, Horses That Help with the American Humane Association, written for the upper elementary reader. Each title in the four book series introduces the reader to a different working horse. By the way, Elwood is on the cover of Therapy Horses. The other three titles cover draft horses, police horses, and performing horses.

These titles are available in library, paperback, and eBook formats. They can be found through your preferred vendor, local bookstores, enslow.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Sunday is World Oceans Day

Officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008, World Oceans Day is held on June 8.

In recognition of this day, Our Earth's Oceans, an elementary series from Enslow, is a perfect complement to this day. Each book focuses on a different ocean, with five oceans covered in all. The titles explore and describe the physical characteristics, natural resources, and plant and animal life of the featured ocean.

This series is correlated to the Common Core College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards, as well as individual state standards. These titles are available from your preferred vendor, enslow.com, independent bookstores, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

Today would have been Rachel Carson's birthday

For grades 1–3, author Mary Dodson Wade explores Rachel Carson's life in this biography for beginning readers. Learn how Carson wrote about the environment after her experiences working as a marine biologist. Her books still influence environmentalists today.

Bold. Pioneering. These adjectives describe Rachel Carson who is one of the most important figures of the twentieth-century environmental movement. The author of the book Silent Spring, Carson exposed the environmental harm done by pesticides and helped lead to restrictions on their use. This biography, for grades 6 and up, covers the life and work of Rachel Carson who has been called the mother of the environmental movement.

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, enslow.com, local bookstores, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The video below shows how to create a paper shamrock chain from the Paper Crafts for St. Patrick's Day book.

Looking forward to Spring

For the lower elementary student looking for books on insects, one of Enslow's latest series, Zoom In on Insects!, is appropriate for that student. These six books are  24 pages, correlated to the Common Core Standards, and contain color photographs.

Written by award-winning author Melissa Stewart, each book focuses on a different insect, describing the different parts of their bodies, their life cycle, and where they live. Each title also includes a words to know section, a list of further resources, and an index.

Available in library, paperback, and eBook formats, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, fireflies, grasshoppers, and ladybugs are covered in the Zoom In on Insects! series. These titles are available from your preferred vendor, local bookstores, enslow.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Who invented windshield wipers?

With all of the rain and snow affecting the United States, does anyone think about something as simple as

who invented the windshield wipers that allow drivers to see in those bad conditions?

Before the invention of the windshield, drivers had to wear goggles to keep rain, snow, and bugs out of their eyes while driving. The first windshield, invented in 1904, could be folded down in case it became so dirty that drivers could not see through it. The other option was to pull over and try to clean the glass with your hand. Some drivers even tried rubbing an onion or carrot on the windshield, thinking that the oil from these vegetables would leave a film on the windshield, and repel the rain. That did not work either.

This 48 page book, written for the upper elementary reader, describes how Mary Anderson came up with her idea, what steps she took to try to patent the idea, and what happened after she allowed the patent to expire. Available in library, paperback, and eBook formats, this title is part of the Inventors at Work! series. This series is correlated to the Common Core College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards. Other inventors in this series include Ruth Wakefield, Willis Haviland Carrier, Percy Spencer, and Jacques Cousteau. These titles are available from your preferred vendor, local bookstore, enslow.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

New series on insects for the elementary reader

Zoom In on Insects! is a six-title series written for the elementary reader. Want to know what a butterfly eats? Want to see what these insects look like close-up? Written by award-winning author Melissa Stewart, these books look at insects encountered in everyday life.

Other insects covered are bees, dragonflies, fireflies, grasshoppers, and ladybugs. These books will be correlated to the Common Core. That information will be posted on our website as soon as it is available.

These titles are available in library, paperback, and eBook formats. They are available through your preferred vendor, enslow.com, your local bookstore, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Congratulations to Patricia and the late Fredrick McKissack!

Patricia McKissack, and her late husband Fredrick, were awarded the Coretta Scott King Virginia Hamilton

Award for Lifetime Achievement. Presented to an African American author, illustrator, or author/illustrator, this award represents the winner's body of published works for children and/or young adults. The recipients of this award have also made a significant and lasting literary contribution.This award is named in memory of beloved children's author Virginia Hamilton, and is presented to the winner during the Coretta Scott King Awards Breakfast at the ALA Annual Conference.

Patricia and Fredrick McKissack have written many books for Enslow Publishers, Inc., with their last series of titles, Famous African Americans, published in the spring of 2013. This series of twelve books feature short biographies on Booker T. Washington, Carter G. Woodson, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Jesse Owens, Louis Armstrong, Madam C.J. Walker, Marian Anderson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, and Paul Robeson.

These titles are available from your preferred vendor, local independent bookstores, enslow.com, 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.

Curious about who invented windshield wipers?

Mary Anderson, the inventor of windshield wipers, is portrayed in this new spring 204 title for elementary students. Written by Sara Latta, this title is one in a new series called Inventors at Work!.

Other titles in this series focus on chocolate chip cookies, an air conditioner inventor, the microwave, and Scuba gear.

All of these titles will be correlated to the Common Core and are available from your preferred vendor, independent bookstore, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and enslow.com. They are available in library, paperback, and eBook formats.

Happy Thanksgiving from Enslow Publishers!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a Happy Hanukkah!

From Enslow's Corny Thanksgiving Jokes to Tickle Your Funny Bone:

Why should you never talk like a turkey?
Because it's rude to use fowl language.

What do you get when two peas fight?
Black-eyed peas.

Our office will be closed on Thursday and Friday, and will reopen on Monday!

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.