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Inventions and Discovery Set
Includes the following titles:
Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
George Eastman and the Kodak Camera
Hedy Lamarr and a Secret Communication System
Henry Ford and the Model T
Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion
Jake Burton Carpenter and the Snowboard
Johann Gutenburg and the Printing Press
Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine
Levi Strauss and Blue Jeans
Louis Pasteur and Pasteurization
Marie Curie and Radioactivity
Philo Farnsworth and the Television
Samuel Morse and the Telegraph
Steve Jobs, Steven Wozniak, and the Personal Computer
Thomas Edison and the Lightbulb
The Wright Brothers and the Airplane
About Graphic Novels:
Experienced parents know that the amount of reading their child does will have a direct and positive impact on his reading fluency and vocabulary development. That is why graphic novels--which we used to refer to as comic books--though once relegated to the category of lowbrow reading, are now experiencing a surge in popularity.
You may think that the comic book medium is primarily for mainstream American children who are peppered by snack-size visual and audio bombardment. If you desire that your children slow down and feast on the written word, then you may cringe at the idea of a graphic novel version of Moby Dick. But before you issue a home-wide ban on these books, consider the following.
If you have a reluctant or beginning reader, your first concern should be for fluidity and competency. You will find that the graphic novel's illustrations draw your child in even as the vocabulary becomes more complex. Then, because the graphics are so attention-grabbing, children often find themselves reading for pleasure.
If your reluctant reader is an older child, your main concern may be making sure that he is culturally savvy. With graphic novels, vocabulary is introduced via contextual clues, making great literature accessible to more children. The interesting pictures and snappy dialogue, with little-to-no narration to bog the reader down, will encourage independent reading and learning. As the child's competence and confidence grow, so will his joy of literacy.
Even if your older child is a competent reader, he will enjoy taking a break from the verbally intense books characteristic of higher-level learning to enjoy a more visual form of storytelling. A 2006 study found that the amount of reading children did for fun decreased from the time they were eight through the teen years. Graphic books can re-engage them in the delights of reading for leisure as well as for learning.
There are children who may never read for pleasure; God just might have wired them differently. But most children, from the reluctant, faltering reader to the brilliant but easily bored adolescent, will find graphic novels intriguing.
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