Spellbound

Author Joseph D’Agnese will be reading and signing Blockhead at Spellbound on Saturday, April 10th at 3:00. If you can’t make it to the event, you can still order signed copies by calling us at 828-232-2228 or clicking below. There will also be a fun, free presentation illustrating Fibonacci’s work predicting patterns in nature. Great for elementary age students (and teachers)!

Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci
by Joseph D’Agnese, ill by John O’Brien,Jr.
suggested for ages 6 to 9
$16.99
Available March 30 2010

Pre-order here:

As a young boy in medieval Italy, Leonardo Fibonacci thought about numbers day and night. He was such a daydreamer that people called him a blockhead. When Leonardo grew up, he realized that many things in nature, from the number of petals on a flower to the spiral of a nautilus shell, seem to follow a certain pattern. He had discovered what came to be known as the Fibonacci sequence!

“D’Agnese’s introduction to medieval Europe’s greatest mathematician offers both a coherent biographical account—spun, with some invented details, from very sketchy historical records—and the clearest explanation to date for younger readers of the numerical sequence that is found throughout nature and still bears his name.”—Booklist

The Jungle Grapevine
by Alex Beard
Suggested for ages 4 to 8
$16.95

Artist Alex Beard talks about his new picture book, The Jungle Grapevine. In the book, Beard brings to life an African savanna filled with humor and misunderstandings.

When Bird mixes up something Turtle says, he accidentally starts a rumor about the watering hole drying up. One misunderstanding leads to another, with animals making their own hilarious assumptions. No one is hearing anything right, and soon the animals are in an uproar from one end of the jungle to the other. Elephant is trumpeting, Croc is snapping, and the Flamingos are fleeing! Beard’s story will have every child wondering if peace can ever be restored in the animal kingdom.

Named one of the Best Books for Children 2009 by the Association of Booksellers for Children, The Jungle Grapevine is available now. $16.95. Suggested for ages 4 to 8.