New Releases by Penny Parker Klostermann

Perfect for kids who are fascinated by insects and American history, here is the story of Nan Songer, a little-known hero of World War II, who collected and bred spiders in her home and found new ways to use their silk to help the United States win the war. Venomous spiders, delicate silk, and science experiments filled Nan Songer’s days and nights—her home in California overflowed with many-legged critters. With inspiration from a friend, Nan began to study how spider silk could be harvested. The finely woven material spiders used to create webs was much stronger than it looked, and Nan was eager to unlock its potential and hopefully help her country at the same time. At the height of WWII, she studied different spiders before landing on the poisonous black widow as the perfect spider to experiment with. Their strong silk could be used for crosshairs on rifles, which Nan used to fill massive orders for the US military. Despite the danger posed by black widows, Nan wasn’t deterred—she wanted to play her part. Using a device she built for extracting silk, Nan humanely used it on the deadly spiders to get both extra fine and super heavy silk.

An out-of-this-world remix of the classic poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas”! It’s Christmas Eve. The Martians have hung their stockings and decorated their trees in hopes that Santa will finally visit the red planet. But what are the excited Martians to do when Santa’s sleigh shudders and shimmies and stops? Then teeters and totters and drops? It’ll take a dose of Christmas magic and some help from the Outer Space Rescue Division to get this holiday back on track. Humorous, rhyming text and vibrant illustrations combine to make a perfect winter read-a-loud, destined to become a classic.

A hapless young chef, hoping to impress workers at Fairy-Tale Headquarters, cooks some story ingredients he has found, and gives a new twist to familiar tales.

We all know that “there was an old lady” who swallowed lots of things. Now meet the old dragon who swallows pretty much an entire kingdom! Will he ever learn a little moderation?! This rollicking rhyme is full to bursting with sight gags, silly characters, and plenty of burps! Parents and kids alike will delight in Ben Mantle’s precisely funny illustrations and in Penny Parker Klostermann’s wacky rhymes. "Klostermann''s debut is a rollicking and warped Medieval take on the well-worn cumulative rhyme. Prolific British animator and illustrator Mantle''s expressive and bright cartoon illustrations of the red, horned dragon (and the contents of his stomach) are a perfect match. . . . No matter how many swallowed-fly titles you own, this one belongs on your shelf too." - Kirkus