This is the exciting part of publishing a book! Actually, it is all exciting... getting the book out of the author's head and onto paper, editing, illustrating, designing the cover, formatting, shipping the final product off to the printer, proofing the proofs, returning them and then the waiting...
We are working with a new author on this particular set of books. His name is Joel King and he is a homeschool dad who has a passion for history and geography. You can see that when you flip through the pages of this new book. You are going to love it! It is already getting rave reviews. Check out the cover and then read these reviews and you will see what I mean.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/tn3jcarter/218599/Review%3A+The+Star-Spangled+State+Book+%26+Workbook.html
This last one hasn't been posted online yet, but Heidi has given me permission to post it myself:
The Star-Spangled State Book is a great U.S. geography resource book. It contains a wealth of information on each of the 50 states, and the pages are colorful and fun to look at. The Star-Spangled Workbook is designed to be used with The Star-Spangled State Book. When used together, these two products form a very thorough and interesting U.S. geography curriculum. The Star-Spangled State Book and Workbook are written specifically for homeschoolers in grades four and up.
The Star-Spangled State Book organizes the states in alphabetical order. For each state, it tells the capital, the date the state entered the union, the state’s population and population ranking, land area and ranking, the state’s three most populous cities, a picture of the state and its flag, two interesting stories, and a list of facts about the state. This book also contains “Geoquizzes”- these are fun but challenging ways to test your knowledge of the 50 states. The Geoquizzes cover state recognition (by shape), capitals, borders, and trivia.
The Star-Spangled Workbook is designed to coincide with The Star-Spangled State Book. It is a 36-week course, divided into two semesters. It is based on a 4-day per week schedule. By the end of the course, students should be able to identify all the states, locate them on maps, recall basic state facts as well as some trivia, know the state capitals, and know which states border which. All the lessons are contained in the Workbook, which also includes the answer key and a progress report.
I am very impressed with this course! I cannot wait until my daughter is a few years older and we can use these geography lessons in our homeschool. The author has thought of everything and included it in these two books- all you need to supply are some pencils and crayons, and maybe a U.S. map and/or a globe.
These products are available individually (if you choose to use this program with multiple children, each will need his/her own Workbook), or as a combo package (which contains one copy of each book). If you are looking for a solid U.S. geography curriculum for your upper-elementary student, and if a Christian worldview is important to you, I encourage you to check out The Star-Spangled State Book and Workbook.
-Product Review by Heidi Strawser, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, October,2006
