Al Gore's No. 1 Best Seller AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH to be Adapted for Young Adults in Co-publishing Partnership Between Rodale and Penguin Young Readers Group

NEW YORK, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Penguin Young Readers Group and Rodale announced a co-publishing partnership today for the purpose of adapting US Vice President Al Gore's New York Times No. 1 best-selling book, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It (Rodale Books; Paperback; $21.95; May 2006) for young readers. The young adult version, entitled AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: THE CRISIS OF GLOBAL WARMING (Viking Children's Books/ Rodale Books; Trade paperback; $16.00; hardcover; $23.00; 208 pages; Ages 11 and up; April 2007), adapts Gore's powerful message for a generation that will have to confront the crisis of global warming.

The partnership was crafted by Vice President and Publisher of Rodale, Liz Perl and President of Penguin Young Readers Group, Doug Whiteman. All of Mr. Gore's profits from the young adult books will be donated to fighting global warming.

Al Gore commented, "There is no doubt that young people today are more aware of environmental problems than my generation ever was. As this new generation comes of age, it faces the enormous challenge of solving global warming. That's why I felt it was so important to adapt An Inconvenient Truth for them. In order to fix this crisis, everyone needs to be involved. I have faith that young people have both the ability and the enthusiasm to put a stop to global warming."

Whiteman commented on the importance of bringing Gore's message to this new audience, "As I sat in a theater watching Vice President Gore deliver his message on film, it struck me that if we are to make an impact on the problem of global warming in the near future, we must find a way to bring the message to a younger audience; to the generation that has the opportunity to effect real change. These books are our attempt to do just that."

Perl commented on Rodale's first partnership with a young readers' publisher, "This partnership is in line with Rodale's mission to inspire and enable people to improve their lives and the world around them. How better to protect the future of our planet than to arm our youth with the science, the knowledge, and the wisdom in books like An Inconvenient Truth?"

Rodale's An Inconvenient Truth, released in May 2006, received widespread critical acclaim from an array of leading critics, including Michiko Kakutani, of the New York Times, who wrote, "An Inconvenient Truth is lucid, harrowing and bluntly effective." Warren Bass of the Washington Post wrote, "Galvanizing ... will convince plenty of readers that Earth genuinely does hang in the balance." With over 600,000 copies in print to date, the book explains the latest intelligence and authoritative research, facts, charts and graphs on global warming from top scientists around the world. It has spent 31 weeks and counting, on the New York Times best seller list and received major coverage in the national media arena.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH - the book and the documentary of the same name -- were inspired by a series of multi-media presentations about climate change that Mr. Gore regularly delivers to audiences around the world.

  The Young Readers version of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH Includes:
  -- A new introduction by Al Gore
  -- Chapters entitled: Our Changing Planet; Our Silent Alarm; Cold, Hard
     Evidence; Hurricane Watch; Extremely Wet, Extremely, Dry; The Ends of
     the Earth; A New Atlas; The Ocean's Dead Zones; Hazardous to Your
     Health; Off Balance; A Collision Course; First the Good News; Denial
     Ain't Just a River in Egypt; Crisis = Opportunity
  -- Added definitions and explanations of complex terms and scientific
     concepts specifically for a younger audience
  -- Over 100 images including full-color photographs, illustrations, and
     graphs

Scientists have proven beyond doubt that the Earth's climate is changing, and much faster than originally feared. Human beings are the cause of global warming, and if we don't take on the responsibility of solving it, our environment will change drastically. Some of those changes could include: polar bears becoming extinct as a result of the shrinking ice cap, forty percent of the people in the world confronting a shortage of drinking water, and hundreds of millions of people being forced from their homes because of rising water levels.

Speaking clearly and directly, using indisputable facts and visual examples to illuminate the subject for his audience, Gore explains that the crisis is happening right before our eyes. While human beings are the cause of this worldwide problem, we also have the technology and knowledge to solve it. Gore declares that the choice is ours: we can watch silently as the Earth changes forever, or we can take action and stop global warming.

  Title:       AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: THE CRISIS OF GLOBAL WARMING
  ISBN:        9780670062720 paperback
               9780670062713 hardcover
  Author:      Al Gore
  Pub. Date:   April 2007
  Imprint:     Viking Children's Books/ Rodale Books
  Price:       $16.00 paperback
               $23.00 hardcover
  Pages:       208
  Ages:        11 and up
  Format:      Trade paperback/ hardcover, non-fiction

  About the author

The Honorable Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States, is currently the chairman of both Current TV and the Generational Investment Management. He was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1976 and the US Senate in 1984 and 1990, and served eight years as vice president from 1993 to 2000. He is the author of the 1992 best seller, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (to be reissued by Rodale Books in November 2006). He remains a staunch advocate of environmental awareness and proactive engagement to meet the challenges of global warming and environmental pollution. Mr. Gore promotes the message that we have the tools and technologies to solve global environmental issues and create sustainable solutions, but we must take action now. He lives with his wife, Tipper, in Nashville, TN.

For more information about An Inconvenient Truth, please visit: http://www.climatecrisis.net/

Penguin Group (USA) is the U.S. affiliate of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G. P. Putnam's Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin, Philomel, Plume, Puffin Books, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson (FTSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO). Pearson is an international media company with market leading businesses in education, business information and consumer publishing. For more information, visit http://www.pearson.com/.

Rodale Inc. is the authoritative source for trusted content in health, fitness and wellness around the world, reaching nearly 40 million people each month. The company publishes some of the best-known health and wellness lifestyle magazines, including Men's Health, Prevention, Women's Health, Runner's World, Best Life, Bicycling, Backpacker, Mountain Bike and Organic Gardening, and is also the largest independent book publisher in America with a collection of international titles, including The South Beach Diet and The Abs Diet franchises, and most recently Al Gore's New York Times bestseller An Inconvenient Truth. Rodale's broad range of media platforms includes magazines, books, videos and extensive Web sites. The company is also a leader in direct-response marketing and has more than 26 million active customers in its database. http://www.rodale.com/