CONTACT: Mindee Krymer
25422 Trabuco Rd. #105-265
Lake Forest, CA 92630
(800) 375-2926
Email: mindeek@readerstheater.com
Playbooks Reader’s Theater Helps Students Become Fabulous Food Detectives
Lake Forest, CA - (October 4, 2011) – With recent attention called to the issue of arsenic in apple juices as revealed on The Dr. Oz Show, enlightened consumers are looking for ways to avoid chemical food contamination and teach their children to be responsible for their health as they grow up. Playbooks® Reader’s Theater, a popular children’s book publisher, offers Fabulous Food Detectives by successful author, Susan Ingebretson, as an appropriate choice that is both fun to read in its dramatic play-like format and informative on the topic of food purity and additives.
Dr. Oz found that many well known apple juice brands contain detectable levels of arsenic, some of which exceed the limit established for an acceptable amount of arsenic in drinking water. Arsenic makes its way into apple juice because the juice is made from concentrates imported from other countries that still use arsenic in crop pesticides. Arsenic exposure is known to increase risks of cancer in humans.
In Fabulous Food Detectives, sisters Kayley and Madison invent a robot dog for their Science Fair that can taste any food and announce its ingredients. They are inspired by their father “The Zesty Chef,” and his theme of healthy eating on his own TV show as he demonstrates cooking with fresh, whole foods. Through their efforts to demonstrate the ingredients of healthy foods, they discover a tool for detecting the opposite! When the kids offer the taste-testing robot dog an imported apple, to their surprise, he lists arsenic as an ingredient! The story highlights the importance of paying attention to the sources of our food, and delves further into eating habits of choosing fresh, whole foods over highly processed ones, while showing how delicious a healthy diet can be!
This story is written in engaging reader’s theater format, designed to be read aloud like a play by several readers who each take a character role. In the Playbooks® unique multi-leveled and color-coded format, roles targeting different reading levels allow readers of different ages and abilities to bring the story to life together, while exposing lower level readers to more challenging vocabulary than they would be able to read on their own. Each character’s dialogue appears in different colored text, helping readers identify when they will speak next and giving them a sense of ownership in their roles. Playbooks® Reader’s Theater stories are used widely across the country for improving reading fluency and confidence in students from Grades K-12 in a classroom or After School setting, and are also a powerful tool for parents to read with their children at home.
About the Author
Susan Ingebretson is an Orange County writer and editor who enjoys volunteering as a classroom reading advocate as well as writing stories for children. As a self-motivated researcher of health topics, she’s written several nutrition and fitness-related articles for online and print magazines, and is the author of FibroWHYalgia, a book offering personal experiences and supported guidelines for maximizing and restoring health through diet, fitness, and stress relieving habits. Susan is also the Director of Program Development at the Fibromyalgia Research and Education Center of California State University, Fullerton.
About Playbooks® Reader’s Theater Company
Playbooks, Inc. is located in Lake Forest, CA and is a leading supplier of reader’s theater scripts and classroom story sets to the educational market. For more information, call 1-800-375-2926 or visit www.playbooks.com.
