Publisher Description
Mila’s cat, Muffin, can’t tell time. Muffin wakes her up early every morning! Tired of having her sleep interrupted, Mila attempts to teach Muffin how to tell time. She tells her about the hour hand, the minute hand, and hour and half-hour units. Will Mila’s teaching work? Will she ever get a full night of sleep?
In Math All Around, narrative-driven stories introduce foundational math concepts to young readers in creative ways. Each title combines an interesting story with an important math concept.
Halli’s Thoughts on My Cat Can’t Tell Time (But I Can)
I love books for kids that entertain and slip in a lesson. They are great ways to get kids to learn. The Math All Around series does just that.
My Cat Can’t Tell Time (But I Can) is a fun way to teach kids about time, and have them read about someone their age taking the role of “teacher.” This is the kind of book that will stay with the kids when they put it down because they will recognize every concept – time, measurements, money, and shapes – in their own worlds.
The illustrations are bright and colorful and It was clever to include both digital and analog clocks as that’s what kids see at home and at school. (Fun fact, I queried a friend and he has four analog clocks in his house.)
This book is part of a great series, perfect for elementary school students.
Interview with Rebecca
WP: A lot of writers are intimidated by math. Have you always been good at/comfortable with math? Or did you have to overcome some anti-math feelings to write these books?
RA: LOL! I’m pretty solid on my kindergarten/first-grade math. You won’t find me writing any books on calculus!
But with all seriousness, my day job involves writing about some tricky business concepts. The key to writing about something complicated is to understand who your reader is and meet them at their level. Then, you can break the material down into steps or use analogies that will get the point across.
I added in a pet cat in the time book and burritos in the shapes book because what kid doesn’t like cats and burritos? Hopefully that makes the learning more fun.
WP: Writing for early elementary is different from your middle grade and young adult novels. Were you nervous to take on this project?
RA: Honestly, when I read the email from the editor calling for pitches (story proposals to address the math topics), I composed an “I don’t write picture books” email response in my mind. But I decided to sleep on it. And I remembered Kwame Alexander’s keynote address at a New England SCBWI conference a few years ago. He talked about the importance of saying yes to new projects, even if they were a bit outside your comfort zone.
After that, I noodled on ideas that would make math concepts fun and came up with the idea of using my cat, who wants me to get up at the crack of dawn (4:30 a.m. in June and July!) as the basis of the story on teaching time. After that, the other story ideas came with more brainstorming.
WP: These new books are fun and educational and perfect for kindergarten/early elementary school. How did you come up with the ideas?
RA: The first couple ideas, the cat that can’t tell time and the shapes that are involved in Grandma’s burrito-making, were the easy ones. Then I got a bit stuck. The next topics were money and measurement, which felt a bit dry.
I was thinking about trucks or dinosaurs for the measurement book because both are big and lead to superlatives . . . the longest, the tallest, the heaviest, the strongest. Instead of choosing one, I chose both, putting a kid who loves trucks next to a dinosaur-lover in a sandbox felt like it would lead to all sorts of measurement comparisons that kids would be able to relate to.
And for money, I imagined a grandpa with a huge Mason jar full of coins helping his granddaughter learn about money.
WP: You typically write for older kids. As writers, we know one of the hardest parts of writing is getting the “voice” down, having the story and characters sound age appropriate. You do a great job with these books. What’s your secret for getting the “voice” for each age group?
RA: I think it’s important to have one ideal reader in mind. One child in the right age group who you can picture while you’re reading your draft and think, “Will they get this sentence?”
I also used ATOS readability estimate as a check that I was at about the right level. This wasn’t perfect because terms like “right angle” and “triangular prism” aren’t every-day kindergarten vocab, but they’re key to the lesson. I had to make the text as clear and simple as I could and then factor in that a teacher/librarian/parent would be there to help.
WP: Any tips for people wanting to write stories for all age groups?
RA: I’ve been in a few different critique groups over my writing life. Critique partners are gold! Both for feedback on your stories and making it through the ups and downs of the writing life.
A couple of my critique groups focused on only middle grade and young adult stories. But a couple included picture books as well.
I never thought I was very good at critiquing picture books because the requirements for writing them are so different than for novels—super short word count, not including setting and character description so you leave room for the illustrator to tell their part of the story. But I’m so glad I worked with those picture book writers. Clearly something rubbed off! So my tip is for writers to find their tribe!
My Cat Can’t Tell Time (But I Can) is highly recommended!
The Math All Around series is out August 1, 2024. You can add it to your “want to read” list on Goodreads, or pre-order on Indiebound, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.
