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Usborne children's books - a World of Reading

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Teeny Weeny Books

I absolutely love Usborne children's books! So I've decided to become a consultant. This is my Ode to Usborne, and my plug for my business :)

Usborne Publishing has been in existence for over 30 years (founded in the UK) and is one of the world's leading children's book publishers, with translations in almost ninety languages - including a substantial list of french offerings. They have something fun and educational for children at every stage of literacy, from first word books to fiction. Many of the books in the reading programme and in other series fit very neatly into current school curriculums - in the UK and Canada for sure, and I suspect in the US and Australia as well! For example, in Canada - the grade six science curriculum has a forensic science module, and coincidentally, Usborne books has a great forensic science book that fits right into it (true criminal investigations)! I've added it to my "Titles Available on Amazon" section below, and yes, I'm in the midst of reading it myself and will be providing a review in the "My Book Reviews" section.

As I'm Canadian, my links here are to the Canadian website(s) but you can easily search "Usborne" in any search engine and get a website for your own country. Usborne Canada just came out with online shopping sites for their consultants, and you can reach mine here. It has the entire catalogue, in English and French, and a bunch of other interesting information on Usborne there. And here's a link to my former personal site where I posted the occasional blog, and a few book reviews (and of course, it too has a link to the online shopping site): Teeny Weeny Books. I've actually started up a separate blogspot blog also called Teeny Weeny Books and am no longer maintaining the previous one.

What are the prices like, you ask? Well, 90% of the books are under $20 - 70% are under $15 and 35% are under $10! Other questions you might have:

Q: How many titles are available?
A: Over 2000 titles are available - the majority in English, but many in French,and yes, Spanish.

Q: How many books are available in French/Spanish - and are they translations of English Usborne titles or are they completely different?
A: In French there are over 380 titles, and in Spanish there are about 80 at any given time. They are translations of English Usborne titles. See "Where you can buy the books" for a link to the online catalogue, including specific searches for French and Spanish listings!

Usborne has a great new series - helps parents teach and encourage their children to read - check out the Very First Reading information page on the main Usborne website!

Usborne Reading Programme

This is what intrigued me...

Learning to read, and learning to love it - what better gift can you give a child?

The Usborne Reading Programme has over 200 titles in it, graded in seven levels and covering a wide range of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction. Learning to read is made easy through the use of phonics, repetition, and concentration on the concept of "first 100/1000 words". As well, the illustrations capture a child's imagination and help motivate them to read.

Go to my personal website and view the Usborne Reading Programme page. There I've got a couple of pictures summarizing the programme's framework at each of its levels - their basic narrative content, number of pages, words per page, sentence length, themes, grammar and vocabulary. Or you can find the same information with a bit more detail in my Usborne Reading Programme lens.

Where you can buy the books

Some Usborne book titles are available in bookstores, like Chapters, or on Amazon, but not all of them. The best way to see what is available is to have a home show and have a consultant bring catalogues and some samples. You and your children can explore the catalogue and see the books first-hand. There are touchy-feely books, noise-making books, books with CDs, stickerbooks, puzzlebooks, encyclopaedias and much much more. If you're in Vancouver, BC and are interested in having a home show, contact me!

Failing having a show in your home, you can explore the catalogue online at the main Usborne website(s) and put in your individual order with a consultant, or if they have an online shopping website - like me, you can order directly through there. You can find the the Canadian catalogue on my Usborne Canada online shopping site. Once you are in the catalogue, you can search on a number of options, including title, series, author, illustrator, age and keywords.

As well, there is a substantial number of titles (over 400) available in French and Spanish. You can also find those catalogues on my online shopping site. Here are direct links for the French and Spanish catalogues.

If you don't want to order online, you don't have to. My contact information is on the website and you can call or email me and order that way! I can have the books shipped anywhere in Canada.

I've also put some links here to E-bay auctions and to titles available on Amazon for you to explore further in this lens.

So you don't want to host a home show, just to get hostess credits...

Well, you have some other options:

If you don't really want to have people over to your house for a little book party, you have some other options to earn hostess credits. Here's a couple of ideas:

1. Host a "book party". Have a few friends who don't mind shopping from a catalogue? Why don't you ask a consultant to drop off some catalogues with you, and maybe even a small basket of books as samples? Have your friends look at the catalogues, and give their orders directly (call/email) to the consultant (just have them mention you as the "hostess") and you get the hostess credits!

2. Host an "e-book party". Same idea as above, except do it through email! Email your friend, have them check out the online catalogue and then have them email (or call) the consultant with their order, mentioning you as the hostess... and again, instant hostess credits...

New Titles and Monthly Promotions

for direct customers, and for home show hosts/customers

Every month, Usborne publishes new titles and offers up hostess and customer promotions, like 50% off certain titles. Any customer buying $50 or more of books is entitled to take advantage of these customer specials. I won't repeat that information here, but rather, please browse the links below:
  • Hostess and Customer Specials
  • New Titles

    • My Blog

    My adventures as I develop my Usborne books business

    My former Blog
    I wrote the occasional blog entries chronicling my various activities, and fun happenings as I developed my Usborne books business
    My new Blog
    With the move to Vancouver, I switched ISPs so have a new Blog on Blogspot - same topic though, my activities and thoughts as I develop my business in a new city!

    My Book Reviews

    See what my son and I think of some of the Usborne titles...

    Early Years titles
    That's Not My...
    That's Not My Penguin
    That's Not My Polar Bear
    Noisy Touchy-Feely books
    This is My Monster
    Noisy books
    Noisy Town

    ...more to come...

    Usborne titles available on Amazon

    Some Usborne books can be found in bookstores but...

    that is only a small subset of the over 2000 titles (in English, French and Spanish) which you have access to when you contact an Usborne book consultant. Here are some of the titles available on Amazon right now.
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    Some other Online Shopping Websites

    Can't find what you are looking for on Amazon? Or are they sold out?

    You have a few other online alternatives to find those books you are craving!
    Teeny Weeny Books (Online shopping - Usborne books)
    This is my personal online shopping website for my Usborne books business. Here you'll find all of Usborne's offerings. And if you can't find a specific book but know that Usborne publishes it, or published it at some time or another, you can contact me with the details and I'll see what I can track down for you!
    Barnes & Noble
    Self explanatory - Barnes & Noble online! If I can't find a specific book on Amazon, then often I can find it here.
    Abe Books
    Another great resource to find a "hard to find" book. Booksellers cooperatively post on here. I've found several out-of-print Usborne books here

    Usborne titles on eBay

    New and Used Usborne books

    The selection is even more limited on eBay, but sometimes you can find those rare/out-of-print titles. Here's a posting of the latest auctions on eBay.
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    My other webpages

    Here is a handy list of my other webpages

    I've embedded links to these elsewhere in here, but thought I'd also include them here for quick reference.
    Teeny Weeny Books on Facebook
    My Facebook product page. It links back to my main website, and to this squidoo page. I tend to put short book reviews on here for the new and reprinted titles for any given month.
    Teeny Weeny Books
    My former personal website - my contact info, my occasional blog, etc
    My Usborne Canada online shopping site
    This also has my contact info, along with the full English, French and Spanish catalogues, special offers for my customers, and of course the ability to buy directly. There's also a wishlist function if you just want to mark some books for future consideration! :)

    New Word of the Day

    cordate: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

    Hope you liked my lens on my little business...

    I welcome your feedback on this lens, and of course, any questions about Usborne books. I'll either get back to you with an answer one-on-one, or who knows, maybe I'll post another module here or another lens to address it (and let you know)!

    submit
    • Reply
      sheilamarie Aug 16, 2010 @ 12:26 am | delete
      Hi fellow Canadian! I used to sell Usborne Books as a home consultant in the US and have thought about doing it here as well, though I haven't yet joined the Canadian company. They are great books, super quality and great variety. Good luck with your venture!
    • Reply
      Light-in-me Jun 8, 2009 @ 12:29 pm | delete
      I never heard of Usborne before ! Very interesting, nice lens.
      Take care,
      Robin
    • Reply
      ChrysW Apr 27, 2009 @ 10:38 am | in reply to spirituality | delete
      Thanks! SquidU is something I'm going to check out in the next few days... only joined yesterday ;-)
    • Reply
      spirituality Apr 27, 2009 @ 3:00 am | delete
      Great start. to make it better you can ask for feedback at the squidu forum http://www.squidu.com/ , where you can also make friends and find interesting lenses. It's a community here and we'd like you to be part of it.
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    Important Note

    The words "Usborne" and "Usborne Books at Home" and the balloon logo are the trademarks of Usborne Publishing Ltd.

    Usborne Publishing Ltd. has no connection with these pages and neither sponsors nor supports their content.

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    ChrysW

    New mum, budding mompreneur... Right now, I am on maternity leave - my son is approaching a year old and is bursting with energy. I'm hoping that my n... more »

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