Series: Beginners Series.
Subject Areas: Science, Nature, History, Environment, Space, Ballet.
Ages: 5 6 7 8 9 10.
Type: General Readers.

One morning last June I arrived at the Tulsa airport to catch a plane home from the Usborne National Convention. Two Usborne consultants, Cathie MacKenzie-Carey and Mindy Martin, were just sitting down to have breakfast with publisher Peter Usborne, and they asked me to join them. What a coincidence that all of us were waiting for flights at nearby gates!

Wondering what he is like? Conversation with Peter is fast-paced – he asks most of the questions. Do we think the market is saturated here? (No!) How can we tell? He wants details about how we approach the school and library market. What does it mean to “list” a school? At one point he expresses some disappointment that the Beginners series hasn’t sold very well in the U.S., and begins to grill us for any buzz words that are popular among educators right now. When he heard one of us mention “reading” and “readers,” he latched on to that concept. “Of course, they should have been called Beginning Readers, not Beginners!” He jots down various thoughts on a tablet he carries. Perhaps we’ll see a change in the name of that series sometime ...

You can tell his mind is racing and he constantly applies what he hears and sees to the Usborne book business that has become such a phenomenon.
To those of us who love Usborne books, he’s a celebrity, yet he seems quite down to earth – no one chauffeurs him around, he doesn’t appear to have lofty opinions about himself, and he’s mystified as to why we want him to autograph our Usborne books! After all, he says, I’m not the author, just the publisher. (Just the brains behind the whole company!). Peter Usborne pays for everyone’s breakfast just before he leaves to catch his plane - a brilliant man, but also generous!

The Beginners Series that he was talking about is a large collection of books on
an incredibly diverse set of topics. The idea behind the books is to draw young readers into topics that are attractive to them -- Bears, Birds, Castles, Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Fire Fighters, Farm Animals, Spiders, Caterpillars & Butterflies, Horses and Ponies, Knights, Living in Space ... and the natural interest kids have in these subjects encourages them to grow in their reading skills. Each of these titles is also Internet-Referenced (IR) which means that the child is directed to visit kid-friendly websites for more information and fun activities. As I mentioned yesterday, this series is not babyish, making it perfect for older children or English as a Second Language (ESL) students that need a lower reading level.
You can also purchase these books in sets and save on the combined price.

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Of Interest To: Librarians and Media Specialists, Parents, Teachers.