Hoagies' Hot Topics Reading List: Potpourri

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Hot Topics! Reading List
Potpourri

ʘ Potpourri	ʘ The Knowledge	ʘ Arts and Crafts ˖ Origami
ʘ Words!	ʘ But Why???

Potpourri

1000 Play Thinks: Puzzles, Paradoxes, Illusions & Games by Ivan Moscovich: Visual challenges, riddles, and puzzles to help push thinking into these new frontiers, some original; others are adaptations of classic challenges. Bold, bright, colorful, and genuinely inviting, they are arranged by mathematical or scientific category, and ranked by a degree of difficulty from 1 to 10...
The Big Bug Search by Kamini Khanduri: Search through the detailed illustrations of periods of history from the cave man to the 20th century, showing cultures around the world. Great entertainment for kids from pre-reading through adult!
The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden & Hal Iggulden: A guide book for dads as well as their sons, as a reminder of lore and technique that have not yet been completely lost to the digital age. Recall the adventures of Scott of the Antarctic and the Battle of the Somme, relearn how to palm a coin, tan a skin, and, most charmingly, wrap a package in brown paper and string. By learning how to place a splint or write in invisible ink, a boy might be prepared for anything, even girls (which warrant a small but wise chapter of their own). Originally published in the U.K., adapted for American audiences. Original U.K. version Amazon.co.uk
The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz: The manual for everything that girls need to know –– and that doesn't mean sewing buttonholes! Whether it's female heroes in history, secret note–passing skills, science projects, friendship bracelets, double Dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the eternal mystery of what boys are thinking... U.K. version Amazon.co.uk
The Great Animal Search by Caroline Young, Ian Jackson: Develop a sense of habitats around the world, and the animals that live there; from the arctic to the equatorial rainforests, from mountains to deserts, under the water and by the ocean...
The Great City Search by Rosie Heywood: Search through the glorious illustrations of cities and cultures around the world today!
The Great Dinosaur Search by Rosie Heywood: Find the dinosaurs in our history, searching through detailed illustrations of the periods of pre-historic earth
The Great History Search by Kamini Khanduri, David Hancock: Search through the detailed illustrations of periods of history from the cave man to the 20th century, showing cultures around the world. Great entertainment for kids from pre-reading through adult!
The Great World Tour by Kamini Khanduri: Great Aunt Marigold gives seekers a ticket for a Great World Tour with puzzles to solve, presents to look for and clues to help them find out where to go next. Investigate cultures in cities and countries and cultures around the world!
The Great Undersea Search by Kate Needham, Ian Jackson: Fabulous illustrations and excellent text, lead children to learn about a variety of watery habitats!
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed by Karen Gordon: No ordinary book of grammar, but populated by a wickedly decadent cast of gargoyles, mastodons, murderous debutantes, and, yes, vampires (both transitive and otherwise), who cavort and consort in order to illustrate basic principles of grammar
The New Well Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed by Karen Gordon: Classic punctuation handbook, featuring the further intrigues of cover girl Loona, the duke and duchess, and the mysterious Rosie and Nimrod
Psychology for Kids, Psychology for Kids II: These fascinating tests and experiments make it fun and interesting for kids to learn about themselves, their family and their friends... (also from Amazon.com Psychology for Kids and Psychology for Kids II)
Science of Hitting by Ted Williams: The classic handbook of baseball by it's greatest hitter, but at the same time, a fascinating study in mathematics of hitting and of baseball...

The Knowledge, by Michael Cox, Alan MacDonald, Nick Arnold, and Kjartan Poskittby. Visit Horribles! for the whole Horrible collection!

Artful Art (or from the Amazon.co.uk Artful Art)

Awesome Archaeology (or from the Amazon.co.uk Awesome Archaeology)

Dreadful Drama (or from the Amazon.co.uk Dreadful Drama)

The Gobsmacking Galaxy (or from the Amazon.co.uk The Gobsmacking Galaxy)

Incredible Internet (or from the Amazon.co.uk Incredible Internet)

Mind Blowing Music (or from the Amazon.co.uk Mind Blowing Music)

Mind-Boggling Buildings (or from the Amazon.co.uk Mind-Boggling Buildings)

Smashin' Fashion (or from the Amazon.co.uk Smashin' Fashion)

Triffic Chocolate (or from the Amazon.co.uk Triffic Chocolate)

All the knowledge you'd like to know!!!

Arts and Crafts

Action! and Fantasy Cartooning by Ben Caldwell (or from Amazon, Action! Cartooning and Fantasy Cartooning): Easy-to-follow handbooks help a child draw unique faces and develop fantastic scenarios for their heroes and villains. Action! coaches artists to add motion and expression to drawings, while Fantasy! offers specific guidelines for creating kings, dragons and other characters of legend...
Activity Books by Fiona Watt et al. (or visit Usborne Books and search on "Activity Books")

Origami

The Complete Book of Origami: Step-by Step Instructions in Over 1000 Diagrams by Robert J. Lang: Create nearly 40 striking paper figures with clear, step-by-step instructions and helpful diagrams. Features simple to advanced objects: cube, parrot, rabbit, seagull, cuckoo clock, rocket, mouse, elephant, violinist, Viking ship, and many more...
Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art by Robert J. Lang: We all know one, some of us is one... a Grammar Snob!

A fun way to learn grammar, while we learn to laugh at ourselves...

Origami Insects by Robert J. Lang

Create a swarm of cleverly designed paper insects. Noted origamist presents step-by-step instructions and diagrams for 20 challenging projects: spotted ladybug, tarantula, tick, butterfly, grasshopper, dragonfly, praying mantis, scorpion, and more. Intermediate to advanced level...

Unit Origami: Multidimensional Transformations by Tomoko Fuse

Tomoko Fuse is recognized at home and abroad as one of the most original and exciting of all up-and-coming origami talents. In this book, she explains her method for combining folded-paper units in an insertion fashion that results in an endless sequence of multidimensional variations giving new life and freshness to old-fashioned origami classics...

Words!

The wrong words...??

Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic by Elizabeth Little: We all know one, some of us is one... a Grammar Snob! A fun way to learn grammar, while we learn to laugh at ourselves...
Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun and Spite by June Casagrande: We all know one, some of us is one... a Grammar Snob! A fun way to learn grammar, while we learn to laugh at ourselves...
The Wrong Word Dictionary: 2,000 Most Commonly Confused Words by Dave Dowling: Even good writers sometimes find the right word elusive. Or is it illusive? The correct usage for more than 2,000 words that people commonly misuse is provided in this concise and accessible handbook that assures, insures, and ensures that anyone who wants to communicate accurately and effectively chooses the right word every time...
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss: Who would have thought a book about punctuation could cause such a sensation? Or try the audio CD version - listen to "Cutting a Dash," the hit series about punctuation that inspired the hit book...

The most popular vocabulary books, just for fun!

500 Key Words for the SAT, and How to Remember Them Forever! by Charles Gulotta: Pictures and stories to help you remember the meanings of five hundred of the words that appear most frequently on the SAT. Learning is fast, fun, and forever
Bethump'd with Words by Covey MacGregor: A unique perspective on English as well as keen sense for the 'natural' comedy and humor of the language, made their first appearance in the board game edition of Bethump'd with Words
Bibliophile's Dictionary: 2000 Masterful Words and Phrases by Miles Westley: 290 words commonly found on the SAT test and is presented with easy to remember memory aids in the form of word associations and humorous cartoons
Words That Make a Difference by Robert Greenman
and More Words that Make a Difference by Robert Greenman and Carol Greenman: Passages from the New York Times (Words) and the Atlantic Monthly (More Words) demonstrate hundreds of our language's most interesting words. Both books feature wonderful literary passages, many by renowned authors, with More Words reviewing the history of the vocabulary through the ages and pages of the Atlantic Monthly...
Vocabulary Cartoons: Building an Educated Vocabulary With Visual Mnemonics by Sam Burchers, Max Burchers, Bryan Burchers: 290 words commonly found on the SAT test and is presented with easy to remember memory aids in the form of word associations and humorous cartoons
Vocabulary Cartoons II: Building an Educated Vocabulary With Sight and Sound Memory Aids by Sam Burchers, Max Burchers, Bryan Burchers: hundreds more words...

But Why???

The Nobel Book of Answers: The Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Shimon Peres, and Other Nobel Prize Winners Answer Some of Life's Most Intriguing Questions for Young People by Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, George Vithoulkas, and others: Nobel Prize winners honored for their work for peace and in science, economics, medicine, and literature speak to children about elemental issues...

Mental Floss Clean out your brain!

Forbidden Knowledge: A Wickedly Smart Guide to History's Naughtiest Bits by Will Pearson (Editor) Condensed Knowledge: A Deliciously Irreverent Guide to Feeling Smart Again by Editors of Mental Floss Instant Knowledge (Collins Gem) by Editors of Mental Floss: Packed full of tidbits, quirky facts and history, this delightfully eclectic new magazine teaches you what you should have learned in school - but didn't
If you like the books, try out Mental Floss Magazine and Board Game

Useless Information Don't miss the related website!

Einstein's Refrigerator and Other Stories from Flip Side Of History by Steve Silverman: Weird and bizarre subjects of true-life stories...
Lindbergh's Artificial Heart: More Fascinating True Stories From Einstein's Refrigerator by Steve Silverman: More weird and bizarre true-life stories...

Look! A whole series of books written just for our kids! But Mom, but Dad, Why???

Imponderables : The Solution to the Mysteries of Everyday Life by David Feldman: the first of the Imponderables series... Why is a mile 5,280 feet? Which fruits are in Juicy Fruit' gum? Why does an X stand for a kiss? Why don't cats like to swim?
Do Penguins Have Knees? by David Feldman: The fifth book in the Imponderables series that answers questions about everyday life for which encyclopedias, dictionaries, and almanacs just don't have the answers
How Do Astronauts Scratch an Itch? by David Feldman: The whys of everything from why the letter 'x' is used in algebra to why potato chip bags are hard to open...
How Does Aspirin Find a Headache? by David Feldman: The 7th in the series, answers such questions as do snakes sneeze?, what does Barney Rubble do for a living?, and why doesn't glue get stuck in the bottle?
What Are Hyenas Laughing At, Anyway? by David Feldman: Feldman's knack of asking 'imponderable' questions continues in this blend of science and puzzles about everyday life, like why do mosquitoes seem to like some people more than others?
When Do Fish Sleep?: And Other Imponderables of Everyday Life by David Feldman: A third collection of answers to everyday conundrums, like why are tennis balls fuzzy...
Who Put the Butter in Butterfly?...and Other Fearless Investigations into Our Illogical Language by David Feldman: Demystify our language's most curious clichés and quips, from cooties and mugwumps to Ps and Qs and Peeping Tom...
Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and Other Imponderables by David Feldman: Here are the answers to questions that have been keeping you and your loved ones up nights...
Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? by David Feldman: Why do we kiss under mistletoe? And why are blueprints blue?...
And if you like the books, try the game!
Marlarky (Patch Products): Players try to bluff answers to Imponderable questions, and opponents try to determine the real answers from the ones that are simply malarky...

Or check out the hardback combination editions (at very reasonable prices)...

Life's Imponderables: Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? When Do Fish Sleep? Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? by David Feldman
A World of Imponderables: When Did Wild Poodles Roam the Earth? Do Penguins Have Knees? How Does Aspirin Find a Headache? by David Feldman

Everything you ever wanted to know about Theater...

How Does the Show Go On? by John Kenrick: Everything you need to know about picking the right show; licensing, casting, and budgeting; organizing a schedule; costumes, makeup, staging, lighting, and music; tickets, fundraising, programs, cast parties, and more. Illustrated with help plans and photos from actual productions...

Hot Topics! Reading List Potpourri