Valeri R. Helterbran
Auteur de Why Rattlesnakes Rattle: ...and 250 Other Things You Should Know
Œuvres de Valeri R. Helterbran
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- USA
- Lieu de naissance
- Virginia, USA
- Lieux de résidence
- Ligonier, Pennsylvania, USA
- Professions
- school principal
Associate professor, Professional Studies in Education, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
non-fiction writer - Courte biographie
- Valeri Russell Helterbran, educator and author, is an associate professor in the Professional Studies in Education Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania. She is a lifelong educator who has taught at the elementary and secondary levels.
In addition, she was a middle-school and high-school principal for almost two decades. She was named as 2005 Pennsylvania Teacher Educator of the Year by The Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators.
Author of two additional books, she also publishes a weekly column in her local newspaper, The Ligonier Echo, called “Things Every Kid Should Know.”
A native of Virginia, Valeri now lives in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, with her husband….and she loves her black pug, Rambles.
Membres
Critiques
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 4
- Membres
- 27
- Popularité
- #483,027
- Évaluation
- 3.3
- Critiques
- 10
- ISBN
- 5
Each chapter is divided by topic: Nature and Environment, Language, Holidays and Special Occasions, and Cuisine, just to name a few. She answers questions such as "What is a Swan Song?", "What Is a Blog?" (helpfully providing the pronunciation ("blawg")), and "What Is a Gerund?". While some questions do seem above the level of the intended reader (e.g.: "What Is a Mid-Life Crisis?" and "What Is a Shylock?") most will be of interest to readers of all ages. Included are photographs taken by and/or of family members and friends, as well as items probably found around her home (such as lunch bags, "What Is Hyperventilation?", and a pink flamingo brooch, "What Is a Rhinestone?"). The author also answers questions posed by friends and family as listed in the back. For many of the answers (but not in every chapter) she does provide an example of usage: for the question about the origin of the word 'windfall', she uses the word in three different sentences.
Helterbran's writing style is straight forward and to the point - she takes each question and answer seriously. A couple of nitpicky things: In the preface she begins, "Lifelong learning is a passion of mine", however by the second paragraph it switches to third person. Not a huge deal, but confusing on a basic level. Also, why list "Google.com" as a resource? Shouldn't this information be the result of a little bit more research than that?
This book is a fun read, albeit not especially new trivia territory. If you know young children, or, really anyone, who has an interest in learning more about all kinds of things, this book would be a good start.… (plus d'informations)