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Jerome A. Pohlen

Born: Colorado
Pen Name: Jermone Pohlen

Connection to Illinois: Pohlen currently resides in Berwyn, Illinois, and is an editor at Chicago Review Press.

Biography: Pohlen is a travel writer and editor. His 'Oddball' series of books (''Oddball Illinois, Oddball Wisconsin, Oddball Indiana, and Oddball Colorado'') have been called 'the definitive guides to offbeat destinations.' He is currently at work on three new editions to the series featuring strange places and unique sights to be found in Minnesota, Florida and Ohio. Reviewers have called his series of books 'irresistible, hilarious, well-written and informative'.Pohlen works for Chicago Review Press as an editor. He also writes and performs travel essays built around interviews he would tape during his research for his 'Oddball Books' for the ''Eight Forty-Eight'' show on WBEZ, Chicagos NPR affiliate. He has written for the ''Chicago Reader'', and a little-known magazine called ''Crime Wave''. He has also written about 20 educational books and science kits, few of which are available in trade outlets (or Amazon), but are still sold through teacher book clubs, catalogs, and stores.A lifelong politically active citizen, Pohlen was the youngest delegate at the 1982 Colorado Democratic Convention, has served in the Peace Corps, and has run for Congress.


Awards:
  • Parent`s Choice Award, National Parenting Publications Award.

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Email: jpohlen@ipgbook.com
Jerome A. Pohlen on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=jerome+a.+pohlen


Selected Titles

  Geometry and fractions with geoboards :
ISBN: 1569119392 OCLC: 39878462

Learning Resources, Inc., Lincolnshire, Ill. : 19965.

Oddball Colorado :
ISBN: 1556524609 OCLC: 833771306

Chicago Review Press, Chicago : 2002.

A high-altitude alligator farm. A UFO watchtower. A monument to a headless chicken. While other travel guides tell you about tackling Pike's Peak, skiing the back bowls, or rafting down the Arkansas River, this quirky regional resource offers unusual travel destinations and little-known historical tidbits. Imagine regaling coworkers with unique Rocky Mountain adventures, like spending an evening at a drive-in movie ... in a queen-sized bed, or visiting a vapor cave clad only in a towel. How about seeing a two-headed dragon made of car parts, or watching cliff divers while eating Mexican.

Oddball Florida :
ISBN: 1556525036 OCLC: 750229954

Chicago Review Press, Chicago : ©2004.

This entertaining guide directs travelers to the off-the-wall and offbeat destinations in Florida, home of gator wrestlers, school bus demolition derbies, Hemingway wannabes, the Fountain of Youth, the Nudist Hall of Fame, and a utopian community based on the premise that the earth is not round, but concave. Additional oddball attractions include a graveyard for roosters, the world's largest strawberry, the world's smallest police station, and museums dedicated to seashells, hamburgers, oranges, teddy bears, sponges, air conditioning, and one very old petrified cat. Documenting local oddities and forgotten history, this travel guide covers Florida in six regions with maps and detailed directions for each site as well as phone numbers, hours, web sites, and various photographs.

Oddball Illinois :
ISBN: 1556523718 OCLC: 42463066

Chicago Review Press, Chicago, IL : ©2000.

Oddball Indiana :
ISBN: 1556524382 OCLC: 48144438

Chicago Review Press, Chicago : ©2002.

Oddball Minnesota :
ISBN: 1556524781 OCLC: 833771312

Chicago Review Press, Chicago : 2003.

Land of the world's largest prairie chicken, birthplace of Spam, and home of the world's oldest rock, this is Minnesota, where summers are short, winters are long, and back-road wonders abound. This entertaining guide wastes no time with descriptions of scenic lakes, pristine bike trails, or quaint cafés. Instead it directs travelers (and residents) to the spot where Tiny Tim strummed his last notes on the ukulele; to the Cold Spring chapel where two grasshoppers bow down to the Virgin Mary; and to the McLeod County Museum, where the mummy on display could be from Peru or outer space. Whi.

Oddball Texas :
ISBN: 1556525834 OCLC: 750228207

Chicago Review Press, Chicago : ©2006.

This amusing travel guide to the Lone Star State doesn't waste travelers' time telling them where to find antiques in the Hill Country, take breathtaking hikes through Big Bend, or gaze upon the Alamo. Instead, it guides television fans to a modern replica of the Munsters's mansion, leads the nonsqueamish to the world's only Cockroach Hall of Fame, and points the curious towards a small town filled with hippo statues. Among other things, Texas is home to Goliath-sized roadside attractions, and directions are provided on how to reach the World's Largest Six-Shooter, World's Largest Rattlesnake.

Oddball Wisconsin :
ISBN: 1556523769 OCLC: 45879931

Chicago Review Press, Chicago : 2001.

Progressive nation :
ISBN: 1556527179 OCLC: 750228223

Chicago Review Press, Chicago : ©2008.

A Selection of the Progressive Book ClubFrom the sites of famous sit-ins, marches, and strikes to the locales of events that led to landmark Supreme Court decisions, this inspiring travel guide journeys to more than 400 of the places in the United States that are important to progressive politics. Organized by state, it includes the stories of hundreds of women and men of action who, through creativity and hard work, changed American society for the better. Visit the battlegrounds and celebrate the victories of civil libertarians, feminists, African Americans, gays, lesbians, environmentalists.

 

 

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