Janet Cady Zebrack
Important inventions have been inspired by seeing parallels in analogies. For example, the idea of a printing press came from a wine press. The power of analogies has been well documented, as in the book “Shortcut: How Analogies Reveal Connections, Spark Innovation, and Sell Our Greatest Ideas” (Penguin Random House, 2014) by John Pollack. My book __ “International Analogies” __is a collection of art and text mostly from students I have taught in Nevada. The work from students living in China, India and Germany came to me by e-mail from the children of friends living abroad. Their work is proof that students can think creatively through analogies. The process of writing and illustrating their analogies helped these students develop critical thinking. The students whose analogies are contained in “International Analogies” range in age from an 8-year-old boy living in Guilin, China, to adults learning English as a second language at Truckee Meadows Community College and the Northern Nevada Literacy Council, in Reno, Nevada. The book also includes the work of Adult Basic Education students working to get a high school diploma, and one student challenged by dyslexia. “International Analogies” is formatted, and photographed to facilitate word recognition and prediction skills__which are essential to reading success. The analogy puzzles in the book are based on photographs from my book__”Analogies for Young Kids Book 2″. The puzzles were designed by Sierra Nevada Journeys: a non-profit science education organization in northern Nevada. The puzzles on comparative anatomy can be removed from the book and cut apart.