The Bright Idea Series

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Sandra Kring's A Life of Bright Ideas. Wisconsin, 1961. Evelyn “Button” Peters is nine the summer Winnalee and her fiery-spirited older sister, Freeda, blow into her small town–and from the moment she sees them, Button knows this will be a summer unlike any other. Much to her mother’s dismay, Button is fascinated by the Malone sisters, especially Winnalee, a feisty scrap of a thing who carries around a shiny silver urn containing her mother’s ashes and a tome she calls “The Book of Bright Ideas.” It is here, Winnalee tells Button, that she records everything she learns: her answers to the mysteries of life. But sometimes those mysteries conceal a truth better left buried. And when a devastating secret is suddenly revealed, dividing loyalties and uprooting lives, no one–from Winnalee and her sister to Button and her family–will ever be the same.

The Bright Idea Series are stories based on Mr. Watts - a light stand that magically comes to life. He lives in apartment number 4, where he befriends and advises the children that pass through. Mr. Watts assists them in finding solutions to their problems and helps them to see how each family is special. At the end of each story, the reader is invited to share their Bright Idea for today.

The Bright Idea Series are stories based on Mr. Watts—a light stand that magically comes to life. He lives in apartment number 4, where he befriends and advises the children that pass through. Mr. Watts assists them in finding solutions to their problems and helps them to see how each family is special. At the end of each story, the reader is invited to share their Bright Idea for today.

Lydia Smith, a clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, calls the lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store's overwhelmed shelves "BookFrogs." When Joey Molina, a young BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore's upper room, he bequeaths his meager worldly possessions to her. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But they seem to contain a hidden message. As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey's suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood.

Benjamin Bear, accompanied by his faithful rabbit friend, continues to share his observations and questions about the world around him.

Ruby is determined to win the gold with her fifth-grade science fair project, a Rube Goldberg machine to help her grandfather, but the real prize turns out to be something completely unexpected.

Deep in the shade of a walnut grove stands a tall tree that houses the Walnut Animal Society. Henry is a founding member, an inventor, and a tinkerer. Today Eleanor the bear and Henry search for his lost idea, but discover much more.

Part of the dynamic reading programme Project X, this book is truly boy-friendly. Project X is a reading programme that has been developed based on research into what will really hook boys into reading and make them love books. Project X includes fiction and non-fiction, exciting adventure stories, lots of gadgets, and 21st-century illustrations. Each book comes with notes for parent/teaching assistants thathighlight tricky words or concepts in the books, prompt questions and suggest a range of follow-up activities.

Retells, in tall-tale fashion, how Levi Strauss went to California during the Gold Rush, saw the need for a sturdier kind of trouser, and invented jeans.

This nonfiction reader shines a light on Thomas Edison and his greatest invention—the lightbulb! As a curious child who was always asking questions, it's no wonder Thomas Edison grew up to become a famous, prolific inventor. This easy-to-read nonfiction story follows Edison from his time in school to his career as a full-time inventor. While it focuses on his groundbreaking creation of the lightbulb, this illuminating account also details other important innovations of his, like the phonograph and the microphone. Edison's discoveries will fascinate and inspire all curious young minds!