A fresh, intriguing look at the stories behind great toy inventions."Originally, Play-Doh only came in white. There's a good reason for this. You see, Play-Doh didn't start out as a toy. It started out as a product for cleaning wallpaper."Have you ever wondered who invented Lego, Mr. Potato...  more

A fresh, intriguing look at the stories behind great toy inventions."Originally, Play-Doh only came in white. There's a good reason for this. You see, Play-Doh didn't start out as a toy. It started out as a product for cleaning wallpaper."Have you ever wondered who invented Lego, Mr. Potato Head, or toy trains? Here are the fascinating stories behind these toy inventions and many others. Learn why the see-saw was popular with the Romans, how the Slinky was used during the Vietnam War, and the reason Raggedy Ann has a red heart on her chest that says "I love you." From dolls and checkers to pinball and the modern video game, there's a wide selection here for boys and girls alike.With humor and wit, this intriguing book serves up slices of cultural history that will inspire young readers to start thinking up their own toy inventions.

Drawing on rare access to an NFL team?s players, coaches and facilities, the author of The New York Times bestseller Word Freak trains to become a professional-caliber placekicker. As he sharpens his skills, he gains surprising insight into the daunting challenges?physical, psychological, and...  more

Drawing on rare access to an NFL team?s players, coaches and facilities, the author of The New York Times bestseller Word Freak trains to become a professional-caliber placekicker. As he sharpens his skills, he gains surprising insight into the daunting challenges?physical, psychological, and intellectual?that pro athletes must masterIn Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis infiltrated the insular world of competitive Scrabble® players, ultimately achieving ?expert? status (comparable to a grandmaster ranking in chess). Now he infiltrates a strikingly different subculture?pro football. After more than a year spent working out with a strength coach and polishing his craft with a gurulike kicking coach, Fatsis molded his fortyish body into one that could stand up?barely?to the rigors of NFL training. And over three months in 2006, he became a Denver Bronco. He trained with the team and lived with the players. He was given a locker and uniforms emblazoned with #9. He was expected to perform all the drills and regimens required of other kickers. He was unlike his teammates in some ways?most notably, his livelihood was not on the line as theirs was. But he became remarkably like them in many ways: He risked crippling injury just as they did, he endured the hazing that befalls all rookies, he gorged on 4,000 daily calories, he slogged through two-a-day practices in blistering heat. Not since George Plimpton?s stint as a Detroit Lion more than forty years ago has a writer tunneled so deeply into the NFL. At first, the players tolerated Fatsis, or treated him like a mascot, but over time they began to think of him as one of them. And he began to think like one of them. Like the other Broncos?like all elite athletes?he learned to perfect a motion through thousands of repetitions, to play through pain, to silence the crowd?s roar, to banish self-doubt. While Fatsis honed his mind and drove his body past exhaustion, he communed with every classic athletic type?the affable alpha male, the overpaid brat, the youthful phenom, the savvy veteran?and a welter of bracingly atypical players as well: a fullback who invokes Aristotle, a quarterback who embraces yoga, a tight end who takes creative writing classes in the off-season. Fatsis also witnessed the hidden machinery of a top-flight football franchise, from the God-is-in-the-details strategizing of legendary coach Mike Shanahan to the icy calculation with which the front office makes or breaks careers. With wry candor and hard-won empathy, A Few Seconds of Panic unveils the mind of the modern pro athlete and the workings of a storied sports franchise as no book ever has before.

Rich Eisen always wanted to write a book, not only because he has a lot of fun, interesting stories he’s been dying to share with everyone, but also because he’s interviewed hundreds of athletes--many of whom like to refer to themselves in the third person. In his eleven years as a...  more

Rich Eisen always wanted to write a book, not only because he has a lot of fun, interesting stories he’s been dying to share with everyone, but also because he’s interviewed hundreds of athletes--many of whom like to refer to themselves in the third person. In his eleven years as a national television sportscaster, Rich Eisen has been envious of those athletes because Rich Eisen has never been able to do that on his job, so the host of NFL Network decided to write a book and use it as an admittedly feeble excuse to go third-person on everybody. Not throughout the whole book, of course. That may get quite exhausting for the reader. But for an entire book jacket? Well, Rich Eisen was all over that.That’s the why behind this book. As for the how, Rich Eisen just took it one sentence at a time and hoped for the best. You know, start with a few words and turn those words into sentences which turned into paragraphs and chapters and, eventually, into this book. Rich Eisen didn’t worry about the big picture and just kept focusing on the things that he could control--the keyboard, the ON/OFF button on his computer, his dictionary, his thesaurus, and last--but certainly not least--the spell-check on his word processing program. One day, when it’s all over, only then will Rich Eisen look back on his career and try to put it all in perspective, but right now Rich Eisen absolutely knows he would not be where he is today without his spell-check.By now you must be wondering: What’s this book about? It’s about a journey. It’s about eating, living, and breathing the most popular sport in the history of America. The passion. The pageantry. The pigskin. Thanks to his role as host of the NFL Network’s signature program, NFL Total Access, Rich Eisen gets to go to virtually every event on the NFL Calendar---the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl, the Scouting Combine, the NFL Draft, and the Hall of Fame Induction Weekend. You name it, Rich Eisen is there. And thanks to this book, you can go along for the ride with him--in front of the camera interviewing league MVPs and former presidents of the United States or behind the scenes with some of the game’s all-time greats like Deion Sanders, Ray Lewis, and Brett Favre, just to name a few. I mean, Rich Eisen doesn’t want to name-drop. In all seriousness, Rich Eisen doesn’t have an ego problem.At any rate, if you love the NFL (and who doesn’t), then this book is for you. If you’re curious what it would be like to live the sport year-round, this book is for you. You see, it’s not all about Rich Eisen. It’s about you reading this book and enjoying it to its fullest. At least Rich Eisen hopes you will.Advance Praise for Total Access:“I've always admired Rich Eisen’s work, so it's no surprise to me that his book is very entertaining. What is a surprise is that he's somehow found time to write it in between the NFL Network’s 6,347 hours of coverage of weak-side linebackers who could be draft-sleepers. That sort of programming and this book about it are both genuine public services.” ---Bob Costas“A lot of things in our lives are far less than as advertised, but this book advertises Total Access and gives you Total Access. That’s right. Total Access! I’m not kidding. I liked this book and I’m not a reader.” ---Tony Kornheiser, columnist for The Washington Post and co-host for ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption “Rich uses his great sense of humor to detail the life of an on-air NFL personality. It is a world I know well, but still I couldn't stop turning the pages. It is a great read---a must for anyone who loves television and Pro Football.” ---Joe Buck, Fox Sports