The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder No. 1 on Amazon!

If you enter the phrase Vocabulary Builder" on Amazon.com, 130 books are listed that match that phrase. Of those, the No. 1 most popular is The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder.

During the week of 6/23/03, Mark Phillips, author of The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder and President of A. J. Cornell Publications, entered the phrase vocabulary builder" in Search Books" field of Amazon.com. He found that 130 books were listed that matched that phrase. At the top of the results page, in its own featured section, are listed the three Most popular results for vocabulary builder." He found that The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder, which has been in print for only three months, was No. 1.

Says Phillips, This is especially gratifying because we are a small press and we are competing against vocabulary builders published by the likes of Barrons, Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Merriam-Webster. It shows that if a product has merit, word-of-mouth will carry it to the top.

In other recent good news for A. J. Cornell Publications, The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder has been purchased for use by several schools. These include The High School for the Humanities in Manhattan, Long Islands Manhasset High School and Clarke High School, the Salisbury School in Connecticut, and Cambridge Education Center in Great Neck, NY. Further, The Los Angeles County Office of Education has ordered the title. Says Phillips, This is very exciting because, population-wise, Los Angeles County is the largest county in the country." Moreover, The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder has been picked up for national bookstore distribution by Biblio Distribution, a division of National Book Network, and for national library distribution by Unique Books.

The 400-page Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder offers 1850 SAT-certified words in the context of a greatly loved, familiar story. High school students and adults cant help but remember the meanings of the words they encounter because of the books revolutionary approach. First they see a boldface vocabulary word in context in this completely original retelling of L. Frank Baums classic tale. Next, at the bottom of the same page, they read a thorough but user-friendly definition and an illustrative sentence that is funny or informative and which relates the word to some event or concept they are already familiar with.

Next up for A. J Cornell Publications is The Pinocchio Intermediate Vocabulary Builder, due out in December 2003. This book, which employs the same format as its predecessor, is aimed at upper elementary, middle school, and junior high school students and features 1,000 somewhat easier words.