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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Adam Osterweil's school participates in a schoolwide reading event for charity. East Hampton, NY (Spring, 2018) - Springs Elementary and Junior High School participated in a schoolwide interactive reading adventure sponsored by Adam Osterweil and the Springs PTA. Over 400 students in grades Kindergarten through 8th grade participated in the event, in which they played a book called The Creepy Dungeon (specifically created for the event) that takes the reader on a journey deep into a fantasy underworld full of treasure, strange monsters, and a powerful blue dragon. Along the way the students gathered treasure, solved puzzles, battled monsters, and helped each other reach the dragon’s lair. The students enjoyed comparing their progress on puzzles, sharing and trading valuables from their treasure chests, and assisting younger students with the math and reading skills needed in certain locations deep in the dungeon. No two students finished the adventure in exactly the same way. The event raised over a thousand dollars for the Springs PTA, which will be used to fund student programming in the future. The Creepy Dungeon is an interactive book inspired by choose-your-path books, Dungeons and Dragons, video games, and puzzle books. It consists of a main storyline punctuated by monster battles, mazes, math and reading puzzles, and treasure collection. It can be played with just a pencil, and there are millions of different outcomes to the adventure. Adam created the book to thank the students of Springs for their inspiration and feedback over the 20+ years of his writing career while he has been a teacher at the school. For information on how to participate in a classroom-wide or schoolwide reading event using this interactive book, please contact the author: Adam Osterweil www.adamosterweil.com adam@adamosterweil.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Children's book to be published about Battle of Newtown in Elmira, NY vicinity. East Hampton, NY (May, 2013) - namelos publishing, inc. is scheduled to release Cooper and the Enchanted Metal Detector on May 1, 2013. The book by Adam Osterweil, author of the Disney-award-winning The Comic Book Kid and The Baseball Card Kid, is a historical fiction novel set in the vicinity of Elmira, NY. It chronicles the adventures of an imaginative boy named Cooper, who helps his mom run an antique store out an old barn next to their house. Always struggling for money, Cooper one day acquires a metal detector on one of his garage sale hunts. He begins treasure-hunting in his backyard and uncovers relics from a past battle. With the help of a cast of characters that includes an Iroquois sculptor, a nosy historian and museum coordinator, his faithful metal detector, and his mother, Cooper pieces together the puzzle of what happened on his property during the Revolutionary War, and learns more than he expected about himself and his family during a summer of adventure and exploration. The Battle of Newtown, part of the Sullivan-Clinton campaign of August, 1779, was authorized by George Washington during the Revolutionary War era. Many historians consider this military offensive to be the first U.S. Government response to an act of terror committed on American Soil. The campaign was meant to quiet the British and Iroquois raids on frontier towns during this tumultuous period in Upstate New York. Although Newtown Battlefield State Park commemorates the main battle of this campaign, the surrounding countryside, farms, and housing communities sit atop much of the battlefield, as well as the approach route of the American soldiers. Like Cooper, residents have dug up relics of this battle in their own backyards. Adam Osterweil is a 7th grade English teacher at Springs School in Springs, New York. He has taught there for 17 years, and this is his fifth book for children. In a departure from illustrated science fiction and fantasy novels, Osterweil has created a historical fiction novel for ages 10+ that includes over a decade of research on the Newtown Battle, Iroquois history, as well as a lifetime of experience in metal detecting. For further information contact: Adam Osterweil www.adamosterweil.com adam@adamosterweil.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Children's book released on centennial of famed Honus Wagner T206 baseball card. EAST HAMPTON, New York (February, 2009) - The Baseball Card Kid by Adam Osterweil has been released by Front Street Books, an imprint of Boyds Mills Press (A Highlights Company). The book is an illustrated middle reader adventure story about two boys who travel back in time to acquire the rarest baseball card of all time-the Piedmont-backed Honus Wagner tobacco card-which was first released to the public in limited quantities in 1909. Their journey will take them onto the Titanic steamship, to a vampire's castle in Transylvania, and far into the future to a distant planetoid known as Earth 2. Will the boys return safely home with the mint-condition baseball card? Fifty interior illustrations by Australian-based illustrator Craig Smith accompany the tale. The Baseball Card Kid is the exciting sequel to The Comic Book Kid (2001), which was named a "Best Book of the Year" in 2002 by Bank Street College of Education, and won a Walt Disney children's choice award for Best Adventure Book in 2002. In this former adventure, Brian and Paul travel back in time to acquire a mint- condition copy of Superman #1-one of the rarest and most valuable comic books of all time. School Library journal writes of The Comic Book Kid, "This lighthearted science-fiction story has plenty of quick action. The dialogue is crisp and natural with an abundance of middle school humor. There's also a subtle message about responsibility and friendship." And now Kirkus Reviews writes of The Baseball Card Kid, "The slapstick time-travel antics continue in this sequel to The Comic Book Kid ... Osterweil laces his narrative with middle- grade-style yuks and injects frequent reviews of events into his breathlessly paced tale. Smith punches up the short chapters further with frequent scenes of frantic-looking young folk in bizarre situations." Adam Osterweil is a 7th grade English teacher at Springs School in Springs, New York. He has taught there for thirteen years, and this is his fourth book for children (see www.adamosterweil.com for further information). Osterweil tries to make reading fun and relevant for reluctant readers by writing fast-paced action-packed adventure stories about topics that kids enjoy. He draws from his own students to find inspiration for his characters. Craig Smith, the illustrator, has illustrated over 200 books and has won many awards in Australia. He created over 100 intricate pencil illustrations for Osterweil's two-book time-travel story. Honus Wagner is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He batted .327 lifetime and is most known for his playing career with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1900-1917 and as a coach thereafter. The T206 Honus Wagner card was released in 1909, but very few cards were distributed to the public (estimates placed the number in circulation at 50-200). Rumors abound about the reasons for the small number of printed cards, but their scarcity has made it the most coveted baseball card in history. One specimen in 8.0 condition (10.0 being the highest) recently sold for 2.8 million dollars. Even a lesser card in 3.0 condition recently sold for $791,000. Contact: Adam Osterweil www.adamosterweil.com adam@adamosterweil.com |
