Label: New Books

August 25, 2014

Today HarperCollins is publishing the updated edition of one of my favorite books: OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. And for the first time, it is available not only in hardcover, but also as a paperback and an eBook.

As a science writer, the one thing I can be absolutely sure of is that the "facts" as they are known at the time I write a book are sure to change. So although many of my readers are familiar with this book, you’ll find plenty of new information here (like adding a section about the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, in Russia in February 2013, injuring nearly 1,000 people).

And, we’ve added many, magnificent photographs in the new edition - I’m very excited for my readers to see and read this book again.

Thank you to my editor, Nancy Inteli, for all her hard work and guidance on Our Solar System. I’m very proud of it.

April 10, 2014

Seymour Simon’s new book, EARTH’S MOON: A SHIPMATE’S GUIDE to OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, has just been published by StarWalk Kids Media. It is available as an eBook right now, and we hope to publish it as a print book in the next year.

The Moon is our closest shipmate in space, and as Seymour Simon writes in the book, we travel together on our journey through the Milky Way galaxy. This fascinating book answers questions like: Why does the Moon change shape in the night sky? Why does it look as though there is a face on the Moon’s surface? And will we ever visit there again?

This is the second installment in Seymour Simon’s important new space series, A Shipmate’s Guide to Our Solar System. The first book, EARTH: A SHIPMATE’S GUIDE came out last year, and received an excellent review from Kirkus.

You can view a video trailer of Seymour Simon’s newest book and find out how the Moon was formed - it was a dramatic event! 

September 20, 2013

Heads up for lovers of Einstein Anderson: Science Geek! We have really enjoyed reading your writing this week, and hearing about all the ways that you describe yourselves as similar to and also different from the characters of Einstein and Fiona.

Have any of you been reading Seymour’s new science mystery chapter books and thinking about trying out the projects and experiments that come at the end of each story?  

We’ve made that a little easier for you by putting free copies of all the experiments on SeymourSimon.com. They are all in the section called Kids/Free Stuff (mouse over the pull-down menu called "Kids" at the top of each page, and then click on "Free Stuff"). Here’s what the page looks like.

You can download whatever experiment you want to try, print it out and you’re ready to go!

If you haven’t tried an Einstein Anderson story yet, what are you waiting for? Click this link to read a sample chapter.

And don’t forget, if your school or library has the StarWalk Kids eBook collection, you already have access to FOUR of these great books! Just log in and search for “Einstein Anderson.

 

September 12, 2013

What I think of "Einstein Anderson" and "Extreme Earth Records" books by Seymour Simon 

by Sarah, age 11 years, Year 6, Earlsfield Primary School, London, England, UK 

I really enjoyed these books. My favourite one was the Einstein Anderson book - "The Impossible Shrinking Machine". 

It was really funny and clever. I liked the fact that it was interactive - you could solve the puzzle before the book. The book was also very easy reading and the drawings are very realistic.  They were cool!!

The other book - "Extreme Earth Records" - was amazing. I loved all the little bits of information. The pictures were amazing!! My favourite one was the first one about the snow.

I would recommend these books to anyone. The only thing that I would change is I would make the Einstein books harder to read and more challenging. But otherwise the books are absolutely GREAT!!!  

Photo: Sarah is the one at the top in the photo, with glasses and wearing the pink baseball jacket - the one at the bottom is her elder sister Molly!

September 10, 2013

How about this shot of a frog nabbing its lunch as our Cool Photo of the Week? What a great action shot! 

I’m looking at lots of photographs of frogs this week because I am writing a new book about these fascinating amphibians. Do you see how the frog’s eyes bulge out of the side of its head? That enables them to see in nearly all directions, and they will snap at any small, moving object they see.

It’s not that easy to see a frog catching its prey. If a frog spots a large object (like a human) moving nearby, it will immediately leap away to a safe, hidden spot. You must be very still and very sneaky to observe a frog close up.

Photo: Cathy Keifer / 123RF

August 29, 2013

We are so pleased and proud to report that the first two books in Seymour Simon’s new series, EINSTEIN ANDERSON: SCIENCE GEEK, have won GOLD (!!!) in the Mom’s Choice Awards!

May 23, 2013

It is time for a new contest! Seymour Simon is visiting Skano Elementary School in Clifton Park, NY at the end of this month, and this contest is for all the Skano Elementary kids to enter. Two lucky winners are going to receive personally autographed copies of Seymour Simon’s new book, CORAL REEFS.

Here is how you enter. First, read this excerpt from Seymour’s newest book. 

Coral reefs look like a bunch of rock formations. But a coral reef is actually a gigantic community of living things. For a long time, corals were a mystery to people. They were called rock-plants or plant-animals.

Now we know that each coral polyp, basically a mouth, is a soft sea animal that is something like a jellyfish. The polyp makes a hard, protective limestone skeleton.

Once you have read this, here is what you do to enter:

1.    Do some research and tell us about three animals that live on coral reefs. They might be fish, they might be crustaceans like crab and lobster, or they might be plant-like corals.

2.    You can find your information by clicking on the "Coral Reefs" label on this blog, in Seymour’s book CORAL REEFS, or by using other resources, like the library and the Internet.

3.    Click on the yellow "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog entry to enter the contest by telling us about the three animals you have studied. Make sure that you put the information you have found into your own words (don’t just copy and paste information you find).

4.    When you write your information, be sure to also tell us your name (first name only), your grade, your age and your teacher’s name, so that we can find you if you are chosen as the winner. Allow 24 hours for your comment to show up online, because all comments by people under 13 years old are reviewed by a moderator and approved before they appear on the website. Be patient if you don’t see it right away!

5.    Be sure to post your entry by midnight, Friday, May 31. The contest ends then.

6.    Two winners will be chosen randomly from all the correct entries. Older students may enter individually, and we will pick one winner. Students in grades K-2 may enter as a class and work with their teacher to enter the contest; there will be one classroom winner.

7.    Students who do not attend Skano Elementary may also enter this contest. The rules are the same as above, but for #4, please include your first name, your grade, your teacher’s name, the name of your school, and the city where your school is located. If we have at least 20 entries from other schools, we will randomly choose a third prize winner from the non-Skano Elementary entries. 

Winners will receive copies of CORAL REEFS, personally autographed by Seymour Simon.

So, get to work and send us your entries today!

April 23, 2013

 Today is publication day for Seymour Simon’s latest book from HarperCollins, CORAL REEFS. Hiding on the floor of Earth’s tropical oceans are magnificent and colorful coral reefs. Did you know that coral reefs…..

are actually living beings?

can grow to be taller than a skyscraper?

provide a home for a vast number of other living creatures?

Here is a sample page from this exciting new book:

A giant moray eel grows to more than six feet (1.8 meters) long. It hides within cracks and openings in a reef, perfectly blending in with the surrounding coral.

Colorful parrotfish use their chisel-like teeth to scrape coral for algae. While eating, the parrotfish grinds the coral into the fine white sand found on tropical beaches.

April 16, 2013

Today, 9-year-old Will from Ohio writes a kids’ eye review of Seymour Simon’s upcoming new book, CORAL REEFS. It will be published simultaneously in hardcover, paperback and eBook editions on April 23. 

Hi my name is Will. I usually spend my days learning about the civil war, but I took this week to read and think about Coral Reefs by Seymour Simon. It was a wonderful book, filled with information about a different part of the planet. A part that I don’t get to be with very much.

My favorite part of the book was the colorful pictures. The book started off with a beautiful picture of the coral reef. It was filled with fish of all sorts, colorful corals and bright blue water.

I was also really interested in all the ways plants and animals protect themselves. One thing I learned that I never knew before was that some living things disguise themselves to hide from their predators. An example of this was the sponge that makes itself look like a animal. I liked the puffer fish the best because it has an interesting form of self-defense - making itself bigger and growing spikes.

This book made me want to learn more about oceans and the different life forms that live in them. I recommend Coral Reefs to people who are interested in fish, the ocean or sea plants. The pictures are beautiful and you will learn a lot!

Loved your book!

-Will

April 2, 2013

Hooray! SEYMOUR SIMON’S EXTREME OCEANS is being published today by Chronicle Books.

In honor of publication day, we decided to choose our "Cool Photo of the Week" from this amazing book. This is a photograph of the biggest fish in the ocean, the whale shark. Do you see, at the top right in the photo, the size of the human snorkeler compared to the whale shark?

A whale shark can grow to be 50 feet (15 meters) long and can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds (36,288 kilograms). It has a huge mouth and approximately 3,000 very small teeth. Fortunately, the snorkeler has nothing to fear from this huge fish, which does not have much use for its tiny teeth. The whale shark swims with its mouth wide open to collect seawater, then pushes the water out through its gills and eats the small sea animals that are trapped inside its mouth.

Barbara A. Ward, writing in IRA’s Reading Today wrote of EXTREME OCEANS: "The text and photographs in this engaging nonfiction title are sure to appeal to middle grade readers, especially those attracted to anything extreme, in this case, ocean extremes. The book contains twelve short chapters that explore oceans that are extremely warm and those that are extremely cold as well as the life-threatening enormous waves and tides that sweep in from the ocean’s depths so swiftly. In his usual straightforward style replete with interesting details, this nonfiction maven also covers tsunamis, hurricanes, and sea creatures so incredibly dangerous that no diver wants to encounter them, even briefly. Even those who know plenty about the world’s oceans will still be able to add to that knowledge after reading this photograph-filled book. It has an ocean of interesting facts for readers to share with others."

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