Kathleen Desmarais

I finally received an email back from someone at Kingfisher. It’s from an editorial assistant. I don’t beleive she is a decision-maker, but it was great to hear from someone. And she does seem to actually care:

Dear Kathleen,
    Thank you very much for your email regarding the status of Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. Unfortunately, I am unable to give you a definite answer regarding whether the book is going out of print of not. This is because the matter has not been decided, but will be by the end of February.
     I’m sorry to keep you waiting for an answer, but please be assured that as soon as a decision is made, then I shall email you to let you know. The book is currently available on Amazon if you did want to purchase some more.
     Many thanks, and apologies once more the delay.
Lizzie Yeates

Lizzie Yeates
Editorial Assistant
Kingfisher
The Macmillan Building
4 Crinan Street
London N1 9XW

She is correct about Amazon having Kingfisher. Last week Amazon reported they only had 2 Kingfishers left in stock (which I purchased) and then the very next day they were fully stocked again–hmmmmm. And this is a book that even the publisher doesn’t have in stock (naughty, naughty Amazon).

So I guess we will have to wait until maybe March to hear the news. Meanwhile, on I write….

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Thanks to all who have emailed me giving support to continue writing Modern Times (level two). Yes, I will continue! But I won’t be publishing a print edition (only the eBook) until I am sure Kingfisher History Encyclopedia is back. And there is good news on that front—the Kingfisher line has been bought by MacMillan. This just happened. Last week the Kingfisher page was on the Houghton Mifflin site, now it’s moved to MacMillan. AND they have KFH history listed as “on backorder” not “out of print.” While this doesn’t mean they are going to print more, it certainly provides a ray of hope. I have emailed MacMillan and even this guy. His name is Angus (I love that name) Killick and he is the new associate publisher of Kingfisher effective 5 days ago. He will be in charge of all U.S. publishing of Kingfisher titles. I emailed his facebook (only email address I could find) but if I get a better email address for him, I will post it. I encourage others to email MacMillan and request they consider republishing KFH. Let them know how much it means to you. When I get a good email for Angus Killick, you can email him too. Maybe we can pressure them into it!

But for now I will get on with the eBook edition of MT2. I can even feel the wind coming back into my sails. I am working on one of the last lesson that deals with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. This has been an interesting and challenging lesson to write. It is not only history (going back to ancient times and the Diaspora, and more recently back to WW II when Britain turned the issue of Palestine control over to the U.N. and they partitioned Palestine into two states: one Jewish, one Arab), but it is also a current event that makes the news every week. We don’t have the advantage of time to effectively analyze this event. I am considering having students debate the issue from one side. Creating a great opportunity to introduce debating techniques. Or analyzing the event as a current event. Or maybe just make a point-counterpoint argument where I’ll provide the points and the student provides the counterpoints.

The family is doing just fine. We have had GREAT 70° weather. (That is a stab to all my friends and family who have been freezing up north, including my brother who works at his desk with a heating pad on his back!) So we have been outside a lot, practicing unschooling and “living in the moment” as I call it when we don’t get our school work done. I am taking Charlie (7) to The Magic Kingdom on his birthday this weekend because you can now get in free on your birthday and we have to take advantage of all these opportunities. Sarah got her photo shoot pictures back. They are beautiful but it is a little shocking to see bikini pictures of your 15 year old! She is also busy entering drassage horse riding shows. Chris got a new computer for Christmas has been attached to it since. Charlie recently rehabbed a bunny back to health. Gracie is, well, Gracie. All I can say is that it’s a good thing for her that she is so cute.

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Kingfisher History is out of print! I’ve known this for awhile, but I’ve been in denial, or a state of wishful thinking. One of my vendors called me many weeks ago and told me she could not get any more copies. Well, I thought, that happens sometimes. Quite often when a publisher is going to reprint a book or make other changes, the book will be temporarily unavailable. Even when I checked online and saw OOP mentioned on several sites, I still thought little of it. Surely that just meant this edition is OOP, but soon there will be news of the new edition. Kingfisher does get updated about every 4 years. So I tucked it away and continued working on Modern Times 2. I even commissioned the cover from the fabulous Jana Rade at Impact Studios. 

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Well now it’s time to take the blinders off and wake up! KINGFISHER IS OUT OF PRINT! Holy cow! Holy, holy cow! This is huge for our History Odyssey line. I read SWB’s post about having to rewrite a few entries in the new edition of The Well-Trained Mind because of the KFH mess. If only it were that simple for Pandia Press! A few entries—I’d take that and be thankful! For me it means the possibility of rewriting (completely rewriting) 4 courses! That’s four full years of curriculum affected. I always knew when I started HO, that the format made the course dependent upon other publishers and the availability of other books. I took on this risk willingly, thinking I could always make adjustments in rewrites. And in fact we have experienced some disappointments with books going out of print. Most recently was The Usborne Internet-Linked Viking World. I had to offer web links as research alternatives since there is not a good middle-school level replacement for this book. And it appears that Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors may be out of print or just on hold, not sure yet. But all of these we have taken in stride and although they caused a few extra days of work, it’s nothing I couldn’t handle. Until now.

HO level 2 is dependent on KFH. And to continue publishing it is akin to manufacturing canoes when no one is selling paddles. I’m not saying uncle yet, but I am seriously considering the options, and there aren’t too many—continue publishing the book and pull from the customer base of those who either already own the book or can get a hold of a copy from used-book sellers, rewrite the courses, or let it go.

I am about three lessons and half a dozen maps away from completing Modern Times 2. I am torn whether I should finish it or not. And I was looking forward to writing teacher guides for level 2. I am considering finishing MT 2 (since I am almost done anyway) and making it available as an eBook only. I would like to wait a few months and see what happens with KFH before making any decision on the series. I am hearing conflicting reports that perhaps Houghton Mifflin sold the Kingfisher line, which would be fabulous since HM appears to have totally screwed-up their financials.  

I just can’t fully believe at this time that KFH won’t come back in some form or another. It is too popular a book. Honestly, I don’t know a homeschooler that doesn’t have a copy. I am anxious to hear customer opinions on this. Perhaps I’ll run a poll soon. In the meantime, print copies of level 2 are still available (I have LOTS of copies still) from our vendors and of course the eBooks are still around.

  Ah, time to think of something else, this is very depressing. I’m off to make carrot cake. Cake—the cure for just about everything! 

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Sorry I haven’t posted lately. 5 months since my last post! That’s really bad.

Pandia Press Update – Chemistry (1) is finished! Well, almost, it’s finished as far as the writer and myself are concerned. It is in the hands of the editor. And then the printer. It is scheduled to be ready in March (the eBook hopefully in Feb). It is an extraordinary book! It turned out so much better than I envisioned. I know you will LOVE it! You can view a sample online now at www.pandiapress.com . (Part of the Try It Before You Buy It offer.)

Speaking of which, you can now try out all Pandia Press courses before you buy. The first several lessons of each course are available as eBooks at Pandia Press. Hopefully this will answer a lot of questions. It seems the sample lessons that we had online were just not enough. So now you can go ahead and start a course. If it works, great! Just purchase the rest.

Modern Times (2) is almost done. I have several families reviewing the course. I plan to have it available in March as well. (The eBook may be sooner.) After that, I will focus on writing the very much requested Teacher Guides for level 2. The teacher guides will contain tests, suggested answers, and much more. I think they will be a nice addition (although not completely necessary) to the level 2 books.

Let’s see, what else… Oh! R.E.A.L. Science is now called R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey (RSO) to further delineate from similar-sounding courses. (That’s all I will say about that, although I wish I could say more.) And I have a writer for a high school American history course.

Physics (1) and Biology (2) are well under way. So is an art history course. And I am currently reviewing several submissions for a literature-based language arts program. Hopefully I will secure a writer for that soon.

The Desmarais Family – Still “victims” of the current economy and our new house is on perpetual hold. Small amounts of tinkering going on but nothing substantial. 

My oldest daughter has the fashion bug. This is something that both thrills me and saddens me. Sarah is a smart girl. She is an extraordinary writer and can read classic literature like it’s Dr. Seuss. But she wants nothing to do with academics. (Confession time here. Yes, the daughter of a classical education Mom is not academic, (sigh) you can only lead a horse to water.) She wants to be a fashion designer, and a runway model! This has been her dream since she was 5. So, finally I conceded. And it turns out she just might be successful at it. The model agencies were very smitten with her and she had her first photo shoot last weekend. Here is my picture of her, I will post some professional ones when we get them.

I am really happy about one aspect of this though. Sarah has a level of confidence that I could only dream of having at 15. Like her, I was tall at a young age (started at 5′8″ and was 5′10″ before high school was over). I was HORRIFIED by my height in school. It was not a good thing to be taller than most all my classmates, especially the boys. It is the reason I still struggle with poor posture, the product of 4 years trying to look shorter than I was. But because Sarah is homeschooled, she has never had to feel that negativity. And since she is wanting to be model, she was THRILLED when she finally reached 5′8″ and her shoe size jumped to 9!

Another unexpected benefit of homeschooling!

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