Janice N. Harrington

 
Overview

A young girl stops to call out all the sights and sounds on her morning trip to preschool, but that’s not what makes her late—it is her dad’s goodbye hug.

Kate was late for preschool, but not for the reasons you might expect. It wasn’t because her daddy brushed her hair into poofs or because they slowed to say hello to neighbors on the way to the bus stop. It wasn’t even because she had to wave to all the trucks, cars, and street cleaners on the road. No, Kate was late because just after they arrived at school, her daddy swooped in to give her a great big goodbye hug that lasted a very long time.

Janice N. Harrington is the Ezra Jack Keats Award-winning author of Going North. With Hurry Kate or You’ll be Late!, she has teamed up with illustrator Tiffany Rose to create a delightful picture book about a vehicle-obsessed girl and her very patient father.

 
Overview

This lyrical middle-grade novel-in-verse celebrates the power of story and of finding one’s individual voice.

Keet knows the only good thing about moving away from her Alabama home is that she'll live near her beloved grandfather. When Keet starts school, it's even worse than she expected, as the kids tease her about her southern accent. Now Keet, who can "talk the whiskers off a catfish," doesn't want to open her mouth. Slowly, though, while fishing with her grandfather, she learns the art of listening. Gradually, she makes her first new friend. But just as she's beginning to settle in, her grandfather has a stroke, and even though he's still nearby, he suddenly feels ever-so-far-away. Keet is determined to reel him back to her by telling him stories; in the process she finds her voice and her grandfather again. This lyrical and deeply emotional novel-in-verse celebrates the power of story and of finding one's individual voice.

 
Overview

An African American family becomes a new kind of pioneer.

Leaving behind Big Mama, loving relatives, and the familiar red soil and cotton fields of Alabama, Jessie and her family are going north to Nebraska. They are pioneers searching for a better life with decent schools and jobs. But traveling through the segregated South is difficult for an African American family in the 1960s. With most public places reserved for "whites only," where will they stop to get gas and food?

Lyrical free verse and evocative paintings capture the rhythm of the road and a young girl's longing as she wonders: Will I like it there? Will I like the North?

 
Overview

Roberto is thrilled that his older brother Miguel is going to walk him home from school. But when Miguel forgets and shoots hoops with his friends instead, Roberto is mad and has to walk alone. How will Miguel make it up to Roberto?

Inspired by the works of Ezra Jack Keats and featuring Roberto, a classic character from Dreams, Louie, and Pet Show!, this moving story by award-winning author Janice N. Harrington with gorgeous Keatsian illustrations by Jody Wheeler is sure to win the hearts of Ezra Jack Keats fans.

 
Overview

This fascinating book for young readers tells the story of Charles Henry Turner, the first Black entomologist—a scientist who studies bugs

Can spiders learn? How do ants find their way home? Can bugs see color? All of these questions buzzed endlessly in Charles Henry Turner’s mind. He was fascinated by plants and animals and bugs. And even when he faced racial prejudice, Turner did not stop wondering. He constantly read, researched, and experimented.

Author Janice Harrington and artist Theodore Taylor III capture the life of this inspiring scientist and educator in this nonfiction picture book, highlighting Turner's unstoppable quest for knowledge and his passion for science. The extensive back matter includes an author's note, time line, bibliography, source notes, and archival images.

 
Overview

Ideal for Easter and springtime, an exuberantly illustrated picture book by an award-winning writer and a New York Times bestselling artist!

Little Chick's mother is all cluck and no action. Mama knows her old nest isn't the cozy home she and her brood need. But whenever she vows to start building a new house, she's distracted―by sweety-meaty worms, crunchy-munchy crickets, or picky-pecky corn. Luckily, her Little Chick is an industrious sort. While the rest of his family are stuffing themselves silly, he's quietly working, bit by bit, day by day.

Janice N. Harrington's retelling of a little-known Central African story is perfectly matched with Brian Pinkney's jazzy depiction of a can-do little critter.

 
Overview

Meet one smart chicken chaser. She can catch any chicken on her grandmother's farm except one—the elusive Miss Hen. In a hilarious battle of wits, the spirited narrator regales readers with her campaign to catch Miss Hen, but this chicken is "fast as a mosquito buzzing and quick as a fleabite." Our chicken chaser has her mind set on winning, until she discovers that sometimes it's just as satisfying not to catch chickens as it is to catch them.

A fresh voice full of sass and inventive, bold collage illustrations full of surprises create a childlike escapade brimming with funny high jinks that leads the reader on a merry, memorable chase.

 
Overview

Meet Charles S. Parker, an unsung yet trailblazing Black scientist who made major contributions to the fields of botany (the study of plants) and mycology (the study of fungi) in this inspiring STEM/STEAM picture book biography.

In 1882, Black botanist and mycologist Charles S. Parker sprouted up in the lush, green Pacific Northwest. From the beginning, Charles’s passion was plants, and he trudged through forests, climbed mountains, and waded into lakes to find them. When he was drafted to fight in World War I, Charles experienced prejudice against Black soldiers and witnessed the massive ecological devastation that war caused. Those experiences made him even more determined to follow his dreams, whatever the difficulties, and to have a career making things grow, not destroying them.

As a botanist and teacher, Charles traveled the United States, searching for new species of plants and fungi. After discovering the source of the disease killing peach and apricot trees, Charles was offered a job at Howard University, the famed historically Black college where he taught the next generation of Black scientists—men and women—to love plants and fungi as much as he did.