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| Joel F King, author of the recently published “The Star-Spangled State Book” a history/geography book about our United States, is a 1979 graduate of Sacred Heart School. Convinced that you learn best and retain more when you’re having fun, Joel has created a colorful, engaging book and accompanying workbook, chuck full of illustrations along with interesting information and facts just begging to be learned.
We’re delighted to have autographed copies of both of Joel’s books, gifts of the author in school. Joel is the son of Peggy and Joe King, long time members of Sacred Heart Church. Joel is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and resides with his wife and three boys in western Kentucky. BY LORETTA TACKETT STAFF WRITER A native Pike Countian went from reading books about history to writing them. "He's always been interested in history, even as a grade schooler," said Peggy King about her son Joel Frederick King, who currently lives in Hopkinsville. The secretary for Stone Heritage Inc., Peggy King is the historian for the group working to bring the Red Robin buildings at Stone - once belonging to Eastern Coal Company - back to life and into servicing the people of the area. She retired from the Appalachian Regional Healthcare after 35 years of service, while her husband, -Joel T. King, retired from A&P Tea Company after 40 years. Their youngest son is a history buff like his mother, Peggy King said, and has written "The Star-Spangled State Book," published by Bramley Books. The U.S. geography resource book will be at all Borders l. locations by Christmas, Peggy King said. Taking a challenge from wife Candace t Buchanan King, also a native Pike County, Joel King decided he would take the "boring" state book his homeschooled kids Jordan, 12, Joshua who will be 9 on New Year's Day, and Matthew, 3 - were reading and write a better version. The book had the same stuff people already knew and didn't want to read about l anymore, King said, adding, "I took a different approach.” The book organizes the states in alphabetical order, telling the cap1ta1, the date - the state entered the union, the state's population, the three most populous cities, a picture of the state and its flag, just as many others do. However, King's version has a list of facts about the state and two interesting stories. For example, the stories about Kentucky tell how Abraham Lincoln was born in the state in 1809 and' explores the wonders of Mammoth Cave. Web photo The Star-Spangled State Book allows kids up to the fourth grade to learn about the United States, having fun while learning facts relevant to all 50 states - date of statehood and capital, and some more unique to each state, such as Montgomery, Ala., served as the first capital of the Confederacy.The book also contains "Geoquizzes," fun but challenging ways to test a child's knowledge of the 50 states. "From the disappearance of England's first American settlement to California's population explosion of 1849, you'll experience the growth of a new nation," says Knowledge Quest, a new publishing house for a series of books entitled a Child's Geography. "From Plymouth Rock to Pearl Harbor, you’ll follow the course of American history and geography." The coordinating 264-page workbook turns the 8o-page State Book into a 36week curriculum. King said he wrote the workbook in order to make his book home school-friendly and to create something he could find at Barnes and Noble, Borders or some other bookstore chain. He was thrilled to find it at a Borders in Tennessee. King is currently working on another" book about world history and geography' and says he will probably call it "Nations, Your Passport to the World." "He said, 'Mom, if you think this one is a 10, you'll love, the one I'm working on for world history,'" Peggy King said. As an employee for the Kentucky Revenue Cabinet, Joel King audits people and says, ''I'm a revenuer." He graduated from Turkey Creek Elementary and Belfry High School in 1985 and has an accounting degree from the University of Kentucky, but has always had a fondness for geography and history and he wanted to write something. Candace King, formerly of Ransom, graduated from Belfry High School in 1987 and inspired her husband to "'write the Star-spangled Statebook.” ('She's been behind me all the 'way,"-)Joe1 King said. King's book can be purchased from Knowledge Quest at http://knowledgequestmaps.com, the Old Schoolhouse www.theoldschoolhousestore.com. and Amazon at www.amazon.com. "I think it's the best state book out there," Joel King said. "Maybe I'm prejudice, but others are saying it." HOME |