ESL BOOK REVIEW

TOPICAL BOOKLETS

As with the readers, the topical booklets are available in graded format.

HEINEMANN LIBRARY

The Heinemann Library is a massive collection. Each topic - nature, science, history, boigraph, social studies, economics, anthropology, religion, art, military/war, health, sports, media, machines, food - has it's own series of extensive subtopics, and even subtopics within subtopics. An emphasis on biography, history, and science. The Heinemann catalog includes several pages of books in Spanish. These topical booklets are hard cover, so they're expensive, but deep discounts are available for bulk orders and direct orders.

Heinemann topical booklets are not basically encyclopedia clips, nor are they basically textbook chapters. They make good use of headlines, photos, illustrations, sidebars, quotes, poetry, statistics, and color. They include timelines, graphs, charts, glossaries, bibliographies, indexes. The format of the booklets is the same as the format of the catalog: topics, subtopics, sub-subtopics. Sections are kept to two or three paragraphs to maintain reader interest. Emphasis is on relevancy and comparison to the reader's life and society.

David Downing's profile of Malcolm X in the Leading Lives series is detailed, accurate, balanced, clear, insightful, vivid, and articulate. By far the best I've read. In less than 20,000 words, he explains Malcolm X's life and legacy in the context of his childhood, relationships, the African American community, American history, the media, politics, and religion. Meanwhile, he gives a lower advanced vocabulary a vigorous workout.

OXFORD BOOKWORMS FACTFILES

Stage one has a vocabulary of 400 headwords, with an average word count of 5,200; stage two has 700 headwords, with an average wordcount of 3,600; stage three has 1000 headwords, with an average wordcount of 5,600; stage four has 1400, with an average wordcount of 8,000; stage five has 1800 words, with an average wordcount of 12000. A much smaller collection than Heinemann, but includes important topics: Olympics, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, rainforests, pollution, recycling, information technology, commerce, and nursing. Other interesting topics in the Oxford Bookworms Factfiles collection: Washington DC, food and drink in Britain, history of the English language, the cinema, and history of pop music.