Tag: Jenn Harney

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

CATastrophe! teachers readers to spot patterns

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis
CATastrophe! : A Story of Patterns, by Ann Marie Stephens/Illustrated by Jenn Harney, (Aug. 2021, Boyds Mill Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781635923216
Ages 4 to 8
Nine kittens set out on a fishing adventure to catch some dinner, but – OH NO! – they’re running into some trouble! Luckily, the Captain is there to help them out, by organizing them and calling out patterns for them to follow: row, row, meow; heave, heave, ho; Captain calls out the code, and the kittens follow, creating an organized unit where they can paddle their boat and catch their fish. Using math as a code-building foundation, this is a great way to introduce patterns and coding to younger kids. Rhyming and wordplay, a fun story, adorable artwork, and a fun story makes mathematical concepts accessible and fun to learn and easy to remember. A fun side challenge has readers searching for a dragonfly and a worm that each appear 20 times throughout the book.
A fun companion to Ann Marie Stephens’s Arithmechicks series and Josh Funk’s How to Code books, bring the math fun early on this school year.
Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Intermediate

Hazy Bloom and the Tomorrow Power – what will she see next?

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Hazy Bloom and the Tomorrow Power, by Jennifer Hamburg/Illustrated by Jenn Harney, (Feb. 2017, Farrar Straus Giroux), $15.99, ISBN: 978-0-374-30494-2

Recommended for readers 7-10

Third grader Hazel Bloom (call her Hazy, please) is having visions – peas flying in the air, eggs crashing to the ground – that come true in the craziest of ways, the day after she gets her visions. Her best friend calls it her “tomorrow power”. Hazy tries to head off any catastrophes at the pass, but she always manages to make the wrong move, causing chaos instead of preventing it. If she can find her focus, maybe she can use her “tomorrow power” to save the day when she’s needed most!

The Tomorrow Power is the first in a new intermediate chapter book series about a girl who finds herself with a touch of precognition, with humorous results. Most of the fun comes from Hazel trying to figure out where the vision will take place, and trying to prevent it, while trying to function like a normal kid. There are black and while illustrations throughout, outrageous situations, and a likable group of characters. Pair with the Heidi Heckelbeck series by Wanda Coven for some fun intermediate magical reading.