Smoking - Hardcover

Pringle, Laurence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688130399 ISBN 13: 9780688130398

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1996

An informative look at smoking covers the various issues surrounding the tobacco industry today, presents regulations on tobacco, and discusses the effects of smoking and its overall addictive qualities.

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About the Author:

Laurence Pringle, whom the Chicago Tribune calls "one of America's top nonfiction writers for young readers," concentrates mainly on biological and environmental subjects. He is the highly acclaimed author of over ninety books for young people, among them Smoking: A Risky Business and Vanishing Ozone. Laurence Pringle is the recipient of two major awards for his body of writing--the Eva L. Gordon Award for Children's Science Literature and the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award. He lives in West Nyack, New York.

Laurence Pringle grew up in farm country near Rochester, New York. For four years he attended a one-room school (one teacher with grades one through eight!). He spent many hours alone outdoors and to this day feels at home in the wild and a kinship with nature.

Larry studied wildlife ecology at Cornell University and later earned a master's degree in the same subject at the University of Massachusetts. He began a doctoral program in forest ecology at Syracuse University but then switched to journalism. He began to write articles that were published in nature and outdoor magazines.

A turning point came in 1963. After teaching science for a year, and after taking more journalism courses, Larry became an editor of Nature and Science, a new children's science magazine, published at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

"We had a small staff," he recalls, "and I learned a lot about writing, editing, and picture research. I also learned that my science background and curiosity about nature could be put to good use in children's magazines and books."

His first book, Dinosaurs and Their World, was published in 1968. He became a full-time freelance writer and photographer in 1970. Since then he has had numerous articles and photographs published, but concentrates on writing nonfiction for young people.

Today Larry is the highly respected author of nearly eighty books. His titles include fictional picture books and an inspiring and funny book about human error (The, Earth Is Flat and Other Great Mistakes), but his books are mostly about wildlife, ecology, and natural-resource issues.

Many of them, including Death Is Natural and Living Treasure: Saving Earth's Threatened Biodiversity, have been named NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children. In recognition of his work, Larry has received a Special Conservation Award from the National wildlife Federation and the 1983 Eva L. Gordon Award for Children's Science Literature.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5-10?In a volume packed with information, Pringle clearly lays out the harmful effects of smoking and then takes on the advertising strategies used to discredit such claims. Beginning with a history of tobacco, he jumps into a forthright discussion of nicotine and other ingredients of cigarettes, also considering pipes and smokeless tobacco, the effects of second-hand smoke, and smoking during pregnancy. Much of the book, however, is directed at the claims and advertising put out by the tobacco industry to discount the medical research on the dangers of smoking. The involvement of the federal government in agricultural subsidies, and interest in tobacco as a growth industry are laid out, as well as FDA regulations, congressional bills, and class-action suits. Brian R. Ward's Smoking and Health (1986; o.p.) offers younger readers a calmer discussion of the health effects of smoking, as does Sherry Sonnett's Smoking (1988; o.p., both Watts); neither incorporates the political information or perspective. Margaret O. Hyde's Know about Smoking (Walker, 1995) includes an interesting treatment of conflicts between smokers and non-smokers and more information on smokeless tobacco, and addresses concerns about advertising.?Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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