Label: New Books

March 4, 2019

I had a good time rewriting my latest book, HOW TO TALK TO YOUR COMPUTER (now part of HarperCollins’ Let’s Read and Find Out series). I have always been interested in the intersection of kids, education and computers, and I wrote the first version of this book in 1985, for Harper & Row. At that time we all thought that kids were going to learn the computer language BASIC (Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), and that everyone would be writing programs for their own computers. The book was well-received, even getting some starred reviews. But librarians and consumers didn’t buy it, because it turned out that this wasn’t at all how kids were going to use computers back then.

Fast forward 35 years, and now coding is considered to be a new, core literacy for today’s young students. I was so pleased when HarperCollins asked me to revisit this book, with current coding practices in mind. This is "coding 101," for the very youngest readers. We introduce preliminary ways to think about "talking" to your computer, and introduce core concepts like conditions, loops and functions. I suspect this book will be useful for parents, too, who want to understand what their children are learning in the classroom. This book is designed to get everyone off on the right foot.

I think you’ll love the new illustrations by Mike Lowery. The look is fresh, modern, and fun! We’ve included visual aids like charts, sidebars, an infographic, and a computer-less coding activity. The glossary is important in a book like this, as well, so that we can provide clear, simple definitions of basic coding terms. For example, FUNCTION is defined as: A set of instructions in a program that can be called and executed by a specific name.

 Don’t you love this illustration of the function "Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich"? Sometimes a picture truly is worth a thousand words, and with this kind of subject matter in particular, I think that visualizing the concepts will be very helpful for readers.

Please let me know your thoughts on this book as you use it at home or in the classroom. I hope we’ve hit on a format that works for this generation.

March 1, 2019

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I was intrigued when HarperCollins asked me to update my NSTA award-winning book GUTS. It’s always been one of my favorite titles-short, strong, to the point, and just the right kind of "gross" for kids!

I try to begin a book in a way that will make the topic relevant to my readers. Here is how I did it in GUTS:

You probably eat three meals and several snacks a day. That adds up to hundreds of pounds of food in a year. The digestive systems turns the truckload of sandwiches, milk, salads, and pizzas that you eat each year into the energy and the nutrients that your body needs.

That certainly grounds the material in a kid’s point of view. But, our digestive system is still exactly the system of organs that it has always been. So why the update?

The way we talk about nutrition with children has also changed. The old "food pyramid" analogy has been replaced, and today’s kids are accustomed to "choosing my food plate," which consists of a large serving of vegetables, equal portions of fruits, grains and proteins, and a small serving of milk or other dairy products. We reflect those new USDA guidelines in this updated edition of the book.

March 13, 2018

When I was a little kid I was obsessed with space monsters. I suspected that when they found alien life on Mars, they would BE space monsters. Of course, this turned out not to be true, but throughout my early years I continued to read the multitude of science fiction magazines :that were published in those years: Astounding Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Fantastic Stories. The stories in these magazines were written by great writers, some of whom also wrote science non-fiction—- writers like Isaac Asimov,  E.E. Smith, Fritz Lieber, H.G. Wells, L. Ron Hubbard, Jules Verne, and Robert Heinlein. They were my heroes.

So, when I proposed this book to HarperCollins and they agreed to do it, I was thrilled. I’ve written many books about space, but this particular volume goes beyond what we know, to consider the still unknown. In a way, although it is a nonfiction book it has a "science fiction" quality, and I loved writing it. I hope I’ve done justice to those writers whose work I admired, and who influenced me so greatly.

While I was writing EXOPLANETS I was simultaneously reorganizing my library for a move to our new house. I’ve accumulated thousands of collectible books over the years, so it was quite a project. I own a beautiful set of leather-bound books which are the collected stories of H.G. Wells. When I opened up a volume titled "Stories of Space and Time," I discovered a neatly folded, hand-written letter from HG Wells, written to a friend in 1927. What a find! We’re having it framed and look forward to deciphering his very tiny handwriting to learn what it says. 

January 9, 2018

I just sent in my latest manuscript for a book about space exploration, beginning with humans entering The Space Age. When I was a child, my main interests were science fiction stories and space. Of course, I was a voracious reader and consumed books about everything, from astronomy to zoology. But I sure did love science fiction (look at this cover of one of my vintage Astounding Science Fiction magazines!) and anything about space.

Almost as interesting as space to me were dinosaurs (like all of the kids I knew). So, I’m happy to report that the next book I will be writing is a book featuring new discoveries about dinosaurs. 

From Space to Dinosaurs! I started the research today. I’m in heaven. 

December 13, 2017

I grew up in New York City and never really had much to do with horses. (Though I do have a photo of me when I was a kid alongside a cute pony.  I don’t really remember much about the photo though I do know that the pony was not a regular part of my life.)

My author’s copies of my book HORSES came yesterday. This book is a revision of the original book with new photos and new text, but I was reminded of what happened when I wrote the original book a dozen years ago. For the original book, I was photographing horses in farms in Columbia County in New York State where there were many horse farms. I was just motoring around casually, looking at horses and photographing them when I could get close enough to them from country roads. What often happened though, is that I spent a lot of time just looking and enjoying watching them. And I thought of the cowboy movies and chariot races I had read about and seen in movies. In my mind and in my book, seeing horses galloping about a field is like watching a bit of history playing out in front of you.

Here’s what I wrote in my book:

I would enjoy reading about your own thoughts about horses in your life. 

December 11, 2017

This is one of the excellent photos in my new book WATER. But this photo is something special. It’s a photo taken by Liz Nealon, my wife and partner in research. Liz is an award-winning producer of children’s TV programs such as The Famous Jett Jackson and Ghostwriter. She was also Creative Director of Sesame Street. Now she is a literary agent specializing in digital children’s books as well as my photo research partner in finding the best photos for my new books as well as revisions of my older books. But this photo was chosen just because she loved the design and then used for my book because it fit the text perfectly. 

December 10, 2017

All about the water cycle, precipitation, why we need water, and more!

My brand new book Water was published on October 31, 2017. Water is all around us. It is the most common liquid on our Planet Earth.  It is in the air and in the clouds, in oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds and streams, in ice, in plants and animals, in soil and below Earth’s surface in the top few miles of the crust. Yet water cannot and should not be taken for granted. A person may be able to survive several weeks without food but only several days without water.

Water is the one substance that we are always looking for on other planets and exoplanets. A "Goldilocks Planet" is a planet on which water can exist In liquid form, is is not too hot nor too cold, it is "just right" for the possibility of life. Without water there would be no life.

On a personal note, I thought that water would be a simple subject to write about. But no, water turned out to be both challenging and fascinating. I hope you and your students and children find this book to be a be a captivating introduction to what is the most important substance for living things, water! 

July 5, 2016

Happy Publication Day to @Seymour Simon for his new book, INSECTS!

The photographs are amazing, and you will learn some fascinating things in this book:

All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. 

There are at least four times more kinds of insects than all other animals combined.

The number of insects alive at any given moment is approximately 10 quintillion (that is 10 followed by 18 zeros!)

February 24, 2015

Even after all these years of writing science books for children, I’m still thrilled when I get a good review. This one is particularly meaningful, because it’s from Kirkus (who are notoriously tough reviewers) and because it’s of a book that I co-authored with my wife, Liz Nealon. 

The narrated version of this eBook is part of our StarWalk Kids streaming eBook collection. I hope that you will try it with your students.

October 29, 2014

Seymour Simon and Dennis Kendrick have teamed up again for a new "Silly Jokes and Riddles" book, and this one is perfect for Halloween! If you are a StarWalk Kids Media subscriber, the narrated eBook is already in your collection. If not, it is available on both Amazon and BN.com. 

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