Congratulations to Susan Mercer, author of Pathway to Math Proficiency: Mastering Equivalent Fractions, Decimals and Percents…with Ease, who is one of three finalists for the Outskirts Press 2011 Best Book of the Year Award. The next two finalists will be introduced over the next two days on this blog. Public voting will determine which of the three finalists should be awarded the Outskirts Press 2011 Best Book of the Year award and its $1,500 Grand Prize. Voting is open to everyone and begins on this blog on Friday, June 1.

Susan Mercer is a math curriculum specialist in Santa Ana, California, and has spent the last eighteen years teaching, presenting, writing and developing math resources specifically to address the needs of English Language Learners, special education and low math skill students in grades five through eight. She has presented at national, state and regional math conferences and has conducted numerous professional developmen seminars for elementary and intermediate teachers.

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mercer received her B.S. from the University of Buenos Aires and then moved to California to gain her Masters in Education and teaching credentials from Chapman University. She has been an author with Outskirts Press since October 2007 and published her first book, Pathway to Pre-Algebra Proficiency: 30 Puzzles and Mini-Lessons Designed with the Preteen in Mind in January of 2008. It went on to win a 2009 EVVY Award in the Workbooks category and has received nothing but accolades and five star Amazon reviews and has been cited as a work “ready to motivate the most reluctant learner” and for “keeping students engaged in a fun way.”

Susan followed up the success of her first book with Pathway to Math Proficiency, one of 2011′s finalists for Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year. It was published in March 2011 and also won an EVVY Award just a couple of weeks ago. Pathway to Math Proficiency is a 101 page workbook that helps students master the relationships between the part and the whole with ease. In Pathway to Math Proficiency: Mastering Equivalent Fractions, Decimals and Percents…with Ease veteran educator and successful textbook author Susan Mercer has organized a graduated sequence of visual images that help students make the needed connection between fractions, decimals and percents while creating the mental image of the part and the whole each represents.

As students complete these captivating exercises, comprehension of what otherwise have been troublesome equivalency concepts now occurs easily and is immediately reinforced. Whether used as a classroom or home schooling resource, Pathway to Math Proficiency: Mastering Equivalent Fractions, Decimals and Percents…with Ease allows students to connect the visual and verbal representation of parts to the whole with forty ready-to-use, printable activities and over fourteen hundred math problems that incrementally build a student’s skills in equivalencies. All students in grades four through eight will find Mercer’s activities engaging, but English Language Learners and Special Education Students, in particular,
will be rewarded by the visual aides to learning and the gradient sequence of the exercises.

• Buy the paperback from Amazon for $14.95
• Buy the paperback from Outskirts Press for $13.46
• Download the e-book from Outskirts Press for $6.00

Every year, Outskirts Press recognizes the best book they publish with their annual Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award, which must not only win an EVVY Award from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association but must be recognized as the best book among three finalists in a public opinion poll. As one of three finalists, Susan Mercer and her book Pathway to Math Proficiency will be competing head-to-head-to-head with the other finalists in a public poll on this blog starting on Friday. Stay tuned for information for the other two finalists announced tomorrow and the day after and then come back on Friday to vote for the book you believe to be the best among the three. The author of the winner will receive a $1,500 credit to his or her Publishing Center, courtesy of Outskirts Press, and an exclusive 2011 Best Book of the Year award seal to apply to the cover of the book.

Are you ready to publish your own award-winning book and
perhaps find yourself in the running for next year’s Best Book of the Year award? Get started today.