The Great Divide! A Conversation With Suzanne Slade

Sylvan Dell is proud to introduce the final book in the Suzanne Slade math  series, The Great Divide! This book, like Multiply on the Fly features beautiful, detailed illustrations from Erin Hunter, as well as a great “For Creative Minds” educational section in the back and teaching activities at www.sylvandellpublishing.com.

Animals, like people, enjoy spending time with their friends and family. Many groups of animals have their own unique names. Did you know that a group of gorillas is called a band? And a bunch of billy goats is a tribe? Following in the footsteps of Multiply on the Fly (multiplication), What’s New at the Zoo? (addition) and What’s the Difference? (subtraction), this rhythmic, fun-to-read-aloud book introduces children to division as they conquer bands, tribes, mobs and more.

Below, Multiply on the Fly author Suzanne Slade discusses life as the author of over 90 picture books for kids, and gives advice based on her experiences.  Learn more about Suzanne on her website and figure out how to schedule an in-person or virtual author visit with Suzanne at http://www.suzanneslade.com/.   Suzanne has also just been selected to be a February Featured Author for the Girl Scouts Studio!

What is the most rewarding part of writing children’s books?
There are actually several things I love about writing chil-dren’s book. First, I enjoy discovering cool facts that fasci-nate me. I get a great feeling of satisfaction when I finally complete a book manuscript. And it is very rewarding when a child tells me that they like one of my books.

What is a typical writing day like for you?
My writing day begins when my children leave for school. I usually first catch up on emails, then get back to writing whatever book I’m working on. This almost always involves lots of reading and research. I might read my story out loud to see how it sounds, or send it to a writing friend to get their suggestions on how I could make my story better. Many of my writing days include a quick trip to the library and per-haps a virtual author visit via Skype. Oh, and I also do lots of snacking when I work. A tasty bowl of cereal can really help me keep going!
When starting a new project, how do you determine the style of writing you would like to use? (rhyming, prose, etc.)
When I begin a new book I carefully consider the age group I’m writing for and the topic of my story. These two factors help me decide how I want to write the story. For example, if I’m writing for a younger audience, I often choose rhyme. Prose is usually a better choice if my book is geared for older children, or it’s a topic that has lots of cool, detailed facts I’d like to share.

Is it true you used to work on rockets?
Strange, but true. I have a mechanical engineering degree and worked for McDonnell Douglas in California in the 1980′s. As a test engineer there, I worked on Delta IV rockets that NASA used to send weather and communications satellites into orbit.
How did you go from engineering to writing children’s stories?
When I was a teenager I was interested in writing children’s sto-ries, but my love of math and science determined my studies in college. Later after I became a mom and was reading picture books to my children every day, I began to think about writing again. My path to publication, like many authors, was a rather long journey. I had a great deal to learn about writing, editing, submitting, and children’s stories in general. I took several writing classes, joined critique groups, learned from the many resources available from SCBWI (Society of Children’s Writers and Illustra-tors), and just kept practicing writing.
What advice do you have for girls wanting to pursue a career in a math or science related field?
I tell girls who love math and science to study hard and pursue whatever career they are most excited about. I think there are as many opportunities for girls in the field of math and science, as there are for boys.
What do you hope readers get out of your books?
I hope young readers simply have fun and enjoy reading my books. Of course, if they learn something cool or interesting about animals or insects along the way, that’s great too!

What is the most frequently asked question you encounter as an
author?
I’m often asked what I enjoy most about writing children’s books, and to be honest, it’s hard to think of anything I don’t like about writing children’s books! I love the ex-citement of getting a fresh, new idea. I love digging in and doing research for a new book. I am very curious and enjoy learning new things when I write a story. I really enjoy the challenge of putting my ideas for a fiction story together. To me it’s like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. I usually know all the parts of my “story-in-progress”, and it’s just a matter of figuring out how they fit together.
I also like to play with fun-sounding words. When I read, I often write down interest-ing or unusual words I find in case I want to use them later. It’s also exciting to dis-cover words that sound really cool together. Like hop poppin’, wicky wacky words! Another part of writing I enjoy is working with editors. They are always very helpful and smart. Editors have great ideas to make my writing better. And of course, one of my favorite parts of writing books is sharing them with children. Most children are very curious like me, and they have great imaginations. It’s great to see them enjoy one of my books.
The Great Divide is the latest clever title in your four-book math series. What inspired you to write (and keep writing) a math series like this?
I really enjoy writing books about math because math was my favorite subject in school. I also love learning about all the fascinating animals and insects in our world, so I have fun including cool facts about them in my books.
Many of your books feature animals. What’s your favorite animal and why?
Well, my most favorite animal of all is my little 7-pound dog, Corduroy. As far as wild animals, I a big fan of penguins. They are so adorable, yet all dressed up!

A Conversation with Terry Catasus Jennings, Author of “Gopher to the Rescue!”

 Sylvan Dell is proud to announce one of our Spring 2012 new releases, with Gopher to the Rescue!: A Volcano Recovery Story. Written by Terry Catasus Jennings and illustrated by Laurie O’Keefe, this special picture book discusses, as the title suggests, the different ways that a mountainside returns to life after the destructive power of a volcano.  This story is also based off some of the surprising observations of Mount St. Helens scientists who observed the slow recovery of the mountainside after the blast.  Check out a more complete synopsis of this title, as well as teaching activities and other great freebies about the book here.  Read on for a special interview with Gopher to the Rescue! author Terry Catasus Jennings.

Terry Catasus Jennings is an arts and science enthusiast living in Northern Virginia.  Gopher to the Rescue!, a story about how gopher’s help a mountain-side environment to recover after an earthquake is her first picture book.

Gopher to the Rescue! is certainly not a traditional story for a picture book. What inspired you to write this story?

I was doing research for a non-fiction book about Mount St. Helens when I ran across the unexpected role that gophers played in the mountain’s recovery.  It was such a wonderful fact to know that such a humble little creature could have such a huge impact, that I knew I had to write about it.  The story came to me very quickly because the research was already done and all I had to do was put myself in the place of the animals that lived on the mountain.  It was downright fun!

How did you first become interested in writing, and writing a children’s picture book specifically?

When I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott as a very young girl, I knew I wanted to be a writer, just like Jo March.  I believe though, that I would have ended up being a writer even if I hadn’t read the book. Stories are always rolling around in my head. Whenever something happens I like to report on it, like writing a newspaper story, in my head. I also like to figure out why people may have acted in a particular way, so I take what happens and I figure out a plot line that may have led them to their actions.  Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?  What I like best of all is figuring out the very best way to convey each message—the best words to use, how to form each sentence and that is especially important in a picture book. I love to use the rhythm of language when I write a picture book.  It’s almost like writing a poem.

What do you hope children learn from Gopher to the Rescue!?

The most important lesson I learned in doing the research is how connected each part of nature is to the other.  That’s what I hope my readers learn.  The recovery after a volcano is not set, or planned, rather it is a jumble. Life returns when and where the conditions for that particular type of life occur.  A seed that finds a gopher tunnel will flourish, but a seed that lands on hard, crusty ash will not. Animals can return to the mountain only when they have food, shady places to rest and sleep, and places to nest. The interesting thing is that what happened in Mount St. Helen on a big scale happens everyday, everywhere in nature. Since all living things are so connected, it is important that we be very careful with each habitat and avoid taking actions that can harm Earth, our home.

What was the most challenging thing about writing Gopher to the Rescue!?

Not including all the fun facts that I knew about the mountain and the recovery.

When you tell people you are an author, what is the most frequent question you are asked?

How can you just sit and write, isn’t it torture? The answer is, not when you love it.

What gets your creative juices flowing?

I love to find an interesting nugget of truth, like the effect that gophers had on Mount St. Helens recovery, and weave a fun story around it.  

Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?

Read, read, read. Write, write, write.  Look at the world with curiosity and try to figure out why things happen they way they do and why people act the way they do.  Listen to people talk. Pay special attention to how they move. Capture a scene as if you were a movie camera and store it in your mind.  You’ll use all those things that you have stored in your mind when you write your books.

What will your next project be?

I’m working on several projects right now.  My biggest project is a novel about a twelve-year-old girl who lives through the Cuban revolution from 1958-1961.  It’s very exciting to me because writing it has forced me to learn things about my heritage and about my country’s history that I never knew.  I am putting the finishing touches on two picture books. One about how wood ducks are born high up on trees and on their first day of life their mother pushes them out and they flutter down to the ground.  The other one is about how animals prepare for the seasons.  I have just started writing a picture book about “The Problem with Word Problems,” a book to help children figure out how to solve word and other problems.

Meet the Planets Receives a Teachers’ Choice Award for the Family!

Meet the Planets, a spring 2012 release from Sylvan Dell Publishing, has just received a Learning Magazine Teachers’ Choice Award for the Family!

Teachers’ Choice Awards have been a part of Learning Magazine since 1994. Since that time, the program has grown to become one of the most recognized and prestigious awards in the educational market. The Teachers’ Choice Awards for the Family is the only awards program that requires panelists to be both teachers and parents. The winners will receive a spotlight in the magazine’s Children’s Book Award section, as well as a seal distinguishing them as a Children’s Books winner.

John McGranaghan has always been fascinated by outer space and he shares that fascination in a humorous and educational way through Meet the Planets and Saturn for My Birthday. John has also written stories and articles for Boys’ Quest Magazine, Pockets Magazine, Columbia Magazine, and local newspapers. He is winner of the 2001 Pockets Fiction Contest. When John isn’t writing, he enjoys sports and spending time with his wife and two boys. John is a school counselor in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Klein has been a freelance artist for nearly 20 years. Over the last several years, she has worked as the on-staff artist for a marine park, where she does everything from painting life-size sea animal murals, to illustrating children’s activity books. In addition to the Furs and Feathers, Klein also illustrated Meet the Planets, Where Should Turtle Be?, Little Skink’s Tail, and If a Dolphin Were a Fish for Sylvan Dell Publishing. Her other books include The Out to Pasture series, authored by Effie Wilder.  This is the second Teachers’ Choice Award this year for Laurie.  She previously won the Teachers’ Choice Award for the Classroom for Fur and Feathers in October.

Soar into the Solar System to witness the first Favorite Planet Competition, emceed by none other than the former-ninth planet, now known as dwarf planet Pluto. The readers become the judges after the sun can’t pick a favorite and the meteors leave for a shower. Who will the lucky winning planet be? Could it be speedy-messenger Mercury, light-on-his-feet Saturn, or smoking-hot Venus? Readers learn all about each planet as Pluto announces them with short, tongue-in-cheek facts. Children will spend hours searching the art in Meet the Planets for all the references to famous scientists and people of history, space technology, constellations, art, and classic literature.

‘Tis the Season For Some Superhero Parents

Undoubtedly you know it is THAT time of year again…especially if you have young kids.  Just yesterday I was at a T.J.MAXX in search of Christmas presents for my family and friends. It’s hard trying to make your money last when you have so many things on your list.  In fact, it’s impossible.  While there, I saw a father walking around with his young son.  He asked him to point out things he liked, things he wanted Santa to bring him.  Walking around, it was obvious that this man was making his own mental checklist…to pass along to Santa of course!  All I could think was: How is he going to remember a list when his kid is pulling everything he sees off the shelf?  It’s moments like these that I am tempted to walk up to a parent like him and say, Kudos to you, sir. Of course, I didn’t do that.  I’m not one to deliberately put myself in awkward situations.  Instead, when I noticed that most of the items his son was pulling from the shelves were books (!!!), I told him about Sylvan Dell Publishing and all of our exemplary elementary learning books.  The array of books on our website does not require a mental checklist, and it does not require picking up after a roudy child as they raid the aisles of T.J.MAXX.  AND for maximum stress relief, we do offer free gift wrapping…straight from Santa’s workshop…

Go to our online store now and choose the best way to further educate or introduce your child to science and math through literature.  At this time in the season, stores have become life-size anthills.  Don’t try to be a superhero and bust through the aisles like it’s nobody’s business…because you can’t.  I can already tell you that the massive checkout lines will be your kryptonite. Avoid the chaos with a few simple clicks, and…wahlah!  You can have some gift wrapped books at your door in no time.

Facebook Contest…Enter to Win!

Don’t pass this up guys! It’s easy and fun, and you could win your own personal elibrary. Starting now through December 31, check out our facebook page and post on our wall.  All you have to do is write your favorite thing about reading or the holidays.  And hey, you could “Like” us while you’re at it!

For example my favorite thing about Christmas is the hot Russian tea at my hometown tree farm, and the smell of my favorite Christmas tree candle. 

If you are in the holiday spirit to share your favorite thing about the holidays, or your favorite thing about reading, do it now while you still have a chance to win! We will be giving out 5 free personal elibraries between now and the end of December.

With one click, these eBooks read aloud to the children and page-flip from the beginning of a story to the end. Put a child in front of this eLibrary, and they will “play” for hours on end reading and listening to wonderful, award-winning picture books. We encourage parents to take this excitement and discuss the “For Creative Minds” section at the end of each ebook with their child. Each book homepage also has 40-60 pages of cross-curricular Teaching Activities plus 3 Interactive Reading Comprehension and Math Quizzes.

And since I’m in such a holiday spirit, I can’t help but share the recipe to the best hot winter drink EVER!

• 1 cup of instant tea
• 2 cups of tang
• 1 tsp of cloves
• 1 package of Wylers lemonade mix
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar (or less depending on taste)

Directions: Mix all of this together and keep it in a tightly sealed jar. Use 2 heaping teaspoons for one cup of tea.

And Wha Lah! There you have it…the best winter drink of all time!

What is a Synesthete?

So I came across a new word today: Synesthete. What in the world is that?  As I hope you know, reading can bring all sorts of new experiences and knowledge.  Here’s what I learned today through taking a few minutes to read something new and interesting:

A Synesthete is a person with a sensory image condition called Synesthesia.  For a long time, scientists didn’t bother to study these patients because they claim that they can hear colors and taste words!  How unusual is that? 

There was never any way to prove if these people were making it up, thus causing the condition to be widely misunderstood for many years. Also, Synesthetes tend to describe the things they see and feel in extreme detail, which has prompted scientists to link them to schizophrenics and other people with mental incapacities. 

Now, however, scientists are starting to learn that this condition is not an incapacity at all.  In fact, they are trying to prove that all humans are wired with the potential for Synesthesia…that it is just suppressed from us for some unknown reason. 

I hate calling this strange phenomenon a condition because it offers people certain benefits to creative thinking.  What if we can find a way in the future to unblock the neural path to Synesthesia?  If studies indicate that Synesthesia is about seven times more common in artists, poets, and novelists than in the rest of the population, does this mean that we can all have the maximum potential for creativitiy?

We can all be writers and artists! As Synesthetes are better at linking unrelated ideas, would we be able to find connections and hidden links to many of the mysteries we are investigating today?  You wait and see…I wouldn’t be surprised if a Synesthete discovered the cure to cancer!   

Also, some Synesthetes have been known to perform amazing feats of memorization, such as remembering the value of pi to 22,514 digits, while others are able to distinguish between very similar colors or have a heightened sense of touch.  Whatever the condition heightens, a math genius, or an artist could be born.

Now, just because we don’t all have Synesthesia, or access to it, this doesn’t mean we can’t be whatever we want to be.  Anyone can write a story, and anyone can be an author.  Sylvan Dell Publishing is proof of this, as we ourselves are a small, but quickly growing company.  Many of the books we publish are written by first time authors.  Habitat Spy, Hey Diddle Diddle, The Penguin Lady, and Gopher to the Rescue! are only a few.  

Take a look at these books, read them with your kids, and make sure to tell them that any time they choose, they could be a first time author too!

What Do You Make for Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is coming up once again for Americans on the fourth Thursday of November.

The traditional Thanksgiving holiday is primarily celebrated in the United States. It honors the initial feast held between the English settlers and the Native American Wampanoag tribe in what it is now known as Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. In this 1621 feast, the meal probably consisted of deer, shellfish, roast meat, cranberries, and corn. Our tradition of giving thanks stems from the thanks for the harvest and in 1923, the thanks for the rain after a two-month drought.

Today we spend time with family on Thanksgiving, give thanks for our blessings, and indulge in turkey, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce, and pie – lots and lots of pie.

But some other countries celebrate different types of Thanksgiving, or “harvest” days. Canada celebrates a Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October; at the end of the harvest season. The Canadian Thanksgiving feast is similar to American tradition with a turkey or other roast. They are especially fond of the Cornucopia tradition, made edible with bread.  Countries such as Croatia or Grenada celebrate Thanksgivings on the anniversaries of historical liberations or other independence days.

Let’s go south of the border though and think about Thanksgiving in Mexico. What would they eat if they were to celebrate their harvest? Maybe a roast meat, maybe pumpkins, maybe chilies….but definitely corn tortillas!!! We may eat corn on the cob and corn bread, and hang dried corn cobs for decoration, but what about making corn tortillas for a change?

Corn tortillas were made by the Aztecs thousands and thousands of years ago. They ground corn into cornmeal and made corn dough, or masa, out of it. The dough is shaped into a little ball and flattened into a pancake. The “corn cakes” are then cooked on a hot griddle. Tortillas can be filled with just about anything – including Thanksgiving leftovers!

You can teach your children about tortillas with our book, Burro’s Tortillas by Terri Fields, illustrated by Sherry Rogers. Click here to learn more about Burro’s quest to make tortillas, with or without the help of his friends.

Let’s Celebrate Antarctic Day!

Tomorrow, November 22nd, is Antarctic Day! This is a day to celebrate our neighbors way way south where the penguins and icicles play. This may be a nice place to visit, if you can handle the extreme cold, but I think it’s safe to say that none of us would want to live there.  Since we won’t be unpacking for good any time soon in the Antarctic, how about we give it its own special day and celebrate!

Here are some interesting and fun facts to get you and your kids excited about the Antarctic:

• To avoid confusion, the Antarctic is the region around our Earth’s South Pole, while the Arctic region opposite it is around Earth’s North Pole.  Now which one does Santa fly from again? 
• Did you know that that there are no polar bears in this southern region?  They only live in the Northern Hemisphere.  Penguins, on the other hand, are abundant in the Antarctic. 
• The very first human to be born in the Antarctic was named Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen (have fun pronouncing that one!).  He was born on October 8 of 1913.
• This region had no indigenous people living in it when it was first discovered
• There are more tourists that visit the Antarctic each year than people who actually live there!

Well there you go! To find out more about the Antarctic, keep an eye out for our new title coming in February of 2012, called “The Penguin Lady,”by Carol A. Cole. In this picture book, Penelope Parker lives with penguins!  Short ones, tall ones; young and old—the penguins are from all over the Southern Hemisphere including some that live near the equator! Do the penguin antics prove too much for her to handle? Children count and then compare and contrast the different penguin species as they learn geography.

In the meantime, however, you can learn all about the Antarctic’s rival region, the Arctic, by checking out our wonderful title, “In Arctic Waters,” by Laura Crawford.  While reading this book, you and your child can follow polar bears, walruses, seals, narwhals, and beluga whales while they chase each other around the ice in the Arctic waters!  It is a pure delight to read aloud, and the “For Creative Minds” section helps children learn how these animals live in the cold, icy arctic region. 

Eureka! Multiply on the Fly is a Winner!

Multiply on the Fly written by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Erin E. Hunter is a California Reading Association’s “Eureka! Silver Honor Book Winner” for 2011.

 The California Reading Association is a non-profit professional organization of educators devoted to the use of “standards-aligned instruction” and “research-based teaching strategies” in all aspects of reading and language arts education from the kindergarten level through college. The “Eureka! Children’s Book Award” was created to identify outstanding nonfiction books for children. Winners of this and other awards can be viewed in their journal, The California Reader or on their website, www.californiareads.org.

 Multiply on the Fly follows the arithmetic feel of Suzanne Slade’s What’s New at the Zoo? and What’s the Difference?. In this book children discover the world’s insects: from pirate bugs to Luna moths, while simultaneously learning multiplication. Teeming with fun facts, readers will multiply a variety of insects, including dragonflies, hungry honeybees and stealthy walking sticks.

 Suzanne Slade is the award-winning author of over 80 books for children. Her works include picture books, biographies, as well as many non-fiction titles about animals, sports, and nature. Slade has also written Animals are Sleeping and The Great Divide (which follows the series into division) for Sylvan Dell. One of her favorite parts of the writing process is researching and learning new things. Slade lives near Chicago with her husband Mike, two children, and their tiny dog Corduroy. For more information on Slade, you can visit her website at www.suzanneslade.com

 Erin E. Hunter is both a children’s book and scientific illustrator, specializing in entomological and botanical illustration. She has taught botanical illustration and field sketching at University of California at Santa Cruz, and has even drawn insects under a microscope for the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. She illustrated the fourth book in Slade’s arithmetic series; The Great Divide, as well as Sylvan Dell’s A Day on the Mountain.  Hunter lives with her husband on California’s Monterey Peninsula where she tends to flowers, fruit trees, and vegetables in her yard when she’s not sketching and painting. Hunter’s website is www.eehunter.com.

 Check out more on Multiply on the Fly via the book’s homepage on our website.  Congrats to all!

For our Beloved Book Lovers

Today, November 7th, is National Bookstore Day.  It is also Book Lover’s Day.  What better time could there be to make a trip to your closest bookstore and buy that book you have been itching to get your hands on.  I know that I have my own growing list that alternates between my purse and back pocket.  Go buy a book today, or buy several…the holiday season is here after all.  You may not think it, but I can assure you, books do in fact fit in Christmas stockings!

Better yet, take a hunt around our website.  To those of you with younger children, we have many fun to read books that you can order today.  As you may know, Sylvan Dell has grown to include more than 75 authors and illustrators in the United States and Canada, and 65 titles – honored as finalists or winners of over 70 book awards. Our Science and Math Through Literature Program integrates reading, science, math, geography, character skills, and language learning through fun, cross-curricular activities. Sylvan Dell also provides more online educator resources than any other publisher in the United States.

And on a random note…here’s some interesting facts about Daylight Savings Time…that wonderful mock holiday of ours that bewilders us all:

• According to computer scientist, David Prerau, Ben Franklin—of “early to bed and early to rise” fame—was the first person to suggest the concept of daylight savings.
• Franklin noted that the sun would rise far earlier than he usually did.  He determined that resources would be saved if he and others rose before noon and burned less midnight oil.
• Germany was the first place to adopt these time changes, thereby saving coal for the war effort during WWI.
• In the USA, a federal law standardized the yearly start and end of daylight saving time in 1918…during WWII, it was made mandatory, in order to save wartime resources.  It was even enforced year-round during this time…essentially making it the new standard time for a few years.
• During the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, the USA again extended daylight saving time through the winter.  This caused a 1% decrease in the country’s electrical load.