Most Popular Books by Carl Sommer

El esclavo Androcles arriesga su vida por la libertad. Mientras se oculta, desarrolla una amistad inusual con un león herido. Tanto Androcles como el león son capturados, y el castigo de Androcles lo lleva a la libertad.

Dos estafadores se aprovechan del emperador vanidoso vendiéndole ropa invisible con poderes especiales. Cuando un muchacho joven finalmente dice la verdad sobre el nuevo atuendo, el emperador se da cuenta de que los consejeros honestos son más valiosos que los consejeros que temen decir la verdad.

Mama and Papa have always warned their chicks never to have anything to do with strangers. But the sly fox disguises himself as a little lamb, and uses different tactics to try to trick the chicks into going with him. The cunning fox finally succeeds luring some of the chicks by promising delicious corn to them. Clucky, being the one who always listened to Papa and Mama, doesn’t go along. After a horrifying experience, Clucky’s sister escapes and realizes the importance of listening to parents and never talking to strangers. This cautionary tale stresses the importance of obeying parents and “stranger danger.” Virtues: Trust / Safety / Obedience to Parents Mamá y papá siempre han advertido a sus polluelos que deben evitar a los extraños. Pero el astuto zorro se disfraza de corderito y logra engañar a todos los polluelos menos a uno. Wendy escapa y finalmente descubre por qué los polluelos deben escuchar a sus padres y nunca hablar con extraños.

Nell makes and flies a paper airplane, setting off a series of unexpected events in a hilarious story that reminds children of their experiences with accidents. In this advanced easy reader, the well-illustrated expressions on the red hen’s face leave no doubt she is upset. The events open opportunities to teach children to build a paper airplane and discussion points about accidents and ways to make pets feel better when scared.

Zig, Ken, Jill, and Zig their pet monkey, are off for a fabulous family mountain hike. As usual, Zig, creates mayhem trying to make friends with a group of skunks and tries to jump on the back of a large deer for a ride, but he redeems himself when he saves Jill from a big bug. The exceptionally well-illustrated facial expressions of these fanciful characters and other wildlife in this adventurous tale provides an excellent opportunity for parents to discuss the joy of family time as their early readers master more advanced reading skills.

Soft, fluffy chicks are adorable, but where do they live and what are their parents like? The special jobs of Papa rooster and Mama hen are explained in this charming nonfiction book, and young children see fluffy chicks grow up to look just like their parents. Through crisp, clear photos, Our Amazing World’s book about chickens opens excellent talking points, such as: Why are the chicks hiding under their mother? Why does the rooster look different from the hen?

Spike the rebel is a mean-spirited bully in his neighborhood and school. All the kids are afraid of him, except Mary. She warns him that one day his meanness will come back to haunt him. Spike on a family camping trip, steals a canoe, rows past a caution sign, and ends up being thrown over the waterfalls. He survives, but the incident only makes him meaner. Next, he steals a kid’s BB gun and shoots a protected eagle. Even worse, when the park ranger comes, he plants the evidence so the other kid gets blamed. While riding his bike one day, Spike hits one of his self-made bike traps. He breaks his leg and bleeds badly. Debbie, a girl he laughed at for falling off her bike in one of his traps, comes with her mother and rescues him. This incident transforms Spike. He finally discovers he’s much happier having friends and helping others. Virtues: Tolerance / Friendship / Cooperation Spike el Rebelde es un matón mezquino en su vecindario y escuela. Donde quiera que vaya, causa problemas. Después de que Spike golpea una de sus trampas para bicicletas, su vida se transforma radicalmente y descubre que es mucho más feliz de tener amigos y ayudar a otros.

When Ted and Jan take a trip to the farm, their pet dog, Jed, goes with them. Havoc ensues, as Jed tosses his food around in the car and chases the chickens at the farm. Detailed, brightly colored illustrations lead new readers through the lively story with context clues. Similar beginning and ending word sounds that teach word recognition, and a few longer sentences begin to build children’s reading skills. Target Reader 7 is part of Phonics Adventure's systematic, leveled reading program.

Mama duck is sitting in the nest and Papa duck is nearby waiting for the eggs to hatch into fluffy ducklings in this lovely introduction to nonfiction from Our Amazing World. An enchanting look inside the mallard home is shared through aquatic photos, rich with detail and ready for a curious child’s questions and comments. The babies are swimming!

Life on a ranch with cowboys and cowgirls, cattle and horses, is intriguing to all of us. Colorful photos in majestic ranch settings provide an inside look at life on a working ranch. Our Amazing World introduces nonfiction concepts to young children through the variety of ranch activities presenting great discussion points, which children love.

Cheerful colors in this spirited story build excitement on the pages when Tad’s dog leads a frantic chase to retrieve a cleaning rag and tracks mud in a van. Tad teaches responsibility to the readers when he offers to help the man clean his car and learns that training pets to obey is important to avoid similar situations. Children enjoy trying longer sentences that incorporate one-syllable words and more dialogue, and this delightful book opens the discussion for parents to teach how to handle conflict in a positive way.

Join a child on a delightful visit to a farm where they meet a series of smiling animals, including a tan cow, white sheep, yellow duck, gray horse, brown rabbit, red bird, and black dog. Each friendly encounter emphasizes the joy of sharing smiles. The journey culminates with the child meeting a boy and girl who also smile back, reinforcing the message that when you smile at the world, the world smiles back at you. The book concludes with an uplifting "Share Your Smile" song, encouraging children to spread happiness and kindness to others.

In Davy Becomes Mayor, a young soccer star learns a powerful lesson about the importance of rules. After leading his team to victory, Davy is named “Mayor for a Day” and declares a day with no rules—only to see chaos quickly unfold. What starts as fun turns into disorder at school, danger in the streets, and trouble at home. This humorous and insightful story teaches children that rules exist for a reason: to keep life safe, fair, and joyful for everyone.

The richly colored illustrations welcome children on a trip to the hat store with Jill and Nick. An advanced early reader that introduces words with phonic similarities and comfortably builds child’s reading skills. Nick helps Jill choose a blue hat with flowers even though he thinks hats are silly for men. When the man in the shop demonstrates how a cap could greatly improve Nick’s baseball game, Jill and Nick both buy red baseball caps.

Durante la primavera, los saltamontes perezosos juegan todo el día mientras las hormigas trabajan para almacenar alimentos para el invierno, pero ¿qué pasará cuando el invierno llegue temprano? ¿Las hormigas compartirán con los saltamontes? Descubra cómo ambos aprenden valiosas lecciones sobre la diligencia y el trabajo duro.

A family-friendly ferry ride, illustrated with bold colors and nice detail, depicts the action beautifully in this advanced early reader’s action. The story includes two-syllable words and rich dialogue, enhancing a child’s growing reading experience. A bonus is the variety of new experiences included in the story: riding in their van as dad drives onto the ferry, discovering that seagulls also like dog food, and learning not to kick the ball when playing on a ferry.

Embark on an extraordinary journey across the globe in Migrating Animals! This book introduces readers to some of nature’s most fascinating travelers, showcasing their incredible migrations and the challenges they face along the way. Follow humpback whales as they navigate oceans from icy waters to the warm equator, using baleen to filter-feed on krill and fish. Marvel at Arctic terns, the champions of migration, flying over 50,000 miles annually between the Arctic and Antarctic summers. Witness salmon leaping waterfalls and swimming 1,000 miles back to their birthplace to lay eggs, completing an astonishing life cycle. Discover how loggerhead sea turtles cross vast oceans, returning to the beaches where they were born to lay eggs, while hatchlings race to the sea under the cover of night. Finally, traverse the Serengeti Plains with wildebeests, as over a million complete a perilous 300-mile migration, dodging crocodiles and predators like lions. Packed with vivid details, amazing facts, and inspiring stories of survival, Migrating Animals reveals the wonders of migration and the resilience of these remarkable creatures.

The national educational crisis can be solved by practical yet inexpensive methods, according to Carl Sommer. Shortly after becoming a high school teacher, he found serious limitations with the education his students received. He probed into the reasons why some schools were successful, even among traditionally low-achieving children, while so many others failed to provide students with a proper education. He interviewed parents, students, teachers, assistant principals, and principals. For 10 years he researched to find solutions for the problems facing American education. One basic reason for the massive educational decline, Sommer believes, is that many administrators have embraced progressive policies, such as: not encouraging reasonable educational standards for both students and teachers, lack of concern over students' deficiency in the basics, and permitting unqualified children to advance automatically from grade to grade.

In this warm tale of friends on a baseball team, Nick and Jill arrive for ball practice wearing their new caps only to have their friends scoff at them. When they demonstrate their new skill at catching the ball using their caps, the team rushes off to buy caps of their own. Returning to play ball, they discover a tree loaded with nuts and stop to gather them, discovering baseball caps are also perfect for holding nuts. This adorable story builds on word sound mastery and reading skills. Target Reader 10 is part of Phonics Adventure's systematic, leveled reading program.

Carl Sommer presents a popular study of the faith and life of the early Christians in the first two centuries after Christ. Using documentary evidence and archaeological records, Sommers reconstructs the lives of the early Christians in order to "introduce the treasures of early Christianity to a large number of modern readers". By studying how the early Christians believed and lived, we can learn many valuable lessons on what to avoid and what to strive for today. The Roman world had many facets that are strikingly similar to elements of modern life. Sommer's aim is to help the reader learn how to transform modern culture with the power of the Gospel as was first done in the centuries of the early Church.