Timeless Thomas by Gene Barretta

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What do record players, batteries, and movie cameras have in common?

All these devices were created by the man known as The Wizard of Menlo Park: Thomas Edison.

Edison is most famous for inventing the incandescent lightbulb, but at his landmark laboratories in Menlo Park & West Orange, New Jersey, he also developed many other staples of modern technology.  Despite many failures, Edison persevered. And good for that, because it would be very difficult to go through a day without using one of his life-changing inventions. In this enlightening book, Gene Barretta enters the laboratories of one of America’s most important inventors.

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 Timeless Thomas by Gene Barretta is "a glowing tribute to the inventor who continues to influence modern life", according to a starred Kirkus and a "...useful tool to introduce history and inventions to reluctant readers or students…" according to School Library Journal

Planet Stalker

This is final blog post of Glenn's six-part blog series. Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off is on sale in stores next week, August 30th. Go and lose your pants!

Chapter One: The Snot Guy Scares Your Pants Off
Chapter Two: Bats, Vampires and the Scary Unknown
Chapter Three: Tornadoes, Turbulence and Terror
Chapter Four: Fall Out Boy
Chapter Five: Bee Afraid

It’s official—planet Earth has a stalker. A monster asteroid larger than England’s famous Tower of London, and more than twice the size of New York’s Madison Square garden.

This sinister space-stalker, discovered last year by a team of astronomers in Ireland, goes by the name of 2010 SO16, and according to the experts, it has been tracking us for the last 250,000 years.

The object is one of over 7,000 known Near-Earth Asteroids (or NEAs for short). These are sizable lumps of space rock measuring over 160 feet (50m) across, lurking within 120m miles (or 200m kilometers) of our precious planet Earth.

So should we be afraid? Making plans to hop the planet an live on Mars, perhaps? Digging underground shelters we can hide in? At the very least, wearing ant-asteroid crash-helmets or something?

Well, As I explain in my book Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off, asteroid impacts are no joke.

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Bee Afraid

This is part five of Glenn's six-part blog series featuring Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off!

Chapter One: The Snot Guy Scares Your Pants Off
Chapter Two: Bats, Vampires and the Scary Unknown
Chapter Three: Tornadoes, Turbulence and Terror
Chapter Four: Fall Out Boy

Let’s face it, few people actually like wasps and bees. Fewer still are fond of hornets, scorpions, and other stinging creatures. Most of us are wary of them, many of us hate them with a passion, and some of us are so terrified of them that we scream, freeze, or sprint for the horizon whenever we see one. In fact Apiphobia (the fear of bees) and Vespaphobia (the fear of wasps) are among the most common of human fears, worldwide.

As I explain in my book Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off, this is all perfectly understandable. After all bee and wasp stings are very painful and unpleasant. What’s more, if you’re allergic to them - and you don’t make it to a hospital in time - your body’s reaction to a nasty sting could actually kill you.

Me? I’m not allergic, and I’m not particularly scared of them. But believe me, I’ve had my fair share of bee battles and wasp wars.

The first time I can remember being stung was when I was about 10 years old. I was walking home from school when a bee flew into my straggly hair, got all tangled up, and swung down into my face, Indiana Jones-style, to plant its sting right in the center of my forehead. Ouch. It burned like crazy, and I remember crying a bit. But my mum plucked the sting out with a pair of tweezers, and the swelling and pain soon went away.

A week later, a wasp stung me in the armpit while I was out playing football with my friends. A week after that, a bee stung my hand as I tried to swat it away. I was starting to think maybe I had a big target painted on me, in a colour only wasps and bees could see.

But in reality, I was just a bit unlucky. Or stupid. Maybe both.

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Happy Fourth of July!

What are you planning to do on this most patriotic of days? BBQ-ing? Setting off fireworks? Sitting back and reflecting on our nation's history? Well then, you're in for a treat! Take a look at some of our hilariously fun American history titles for stories of courage, heroism and determination.

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Fall Out Boy

by Glenn Murphy  

This is part four of Glenn's six-part blog series featuring Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off!

Previously:
Chapter One: The Snot Guy Scares Your Pants Off
Chapter Two: Bats, Vampires and the Scary Unknown
Chapter Three: Tornadoes, Turbulence and Terror

At the end of my last blog installment, I had just survived a terrifying tornado and a turbulent trip across the Atlantic from America to Edinburgh.

Well, as you’ve probably guessed by now, I survived the trip home, and I’m now back in sunny Raleigh, North Carolina - enjoying a) the sunshine, b) my local outdoor swimming pool, and c) not having plummeted to my doom in that airplane four weeks ago.

Since we’ve already looked at the tornadoes and airplanes, this month I thought we’d explore a related theme - the fear of heights and falling.

As I explain in my book Stuff That Scares your Pants Off, when I was young, I was afraid of lots of things. One of these was heights. And although heights are easier to avoid than, say, the dark or open spaces, they’re no less terrifying when you find yourself somewhere high up.

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