Congratulations, Ann Marie Stephens, on CATawampus! and sCATttered!

Thank you so much for sharing the release of CATawampus! A Story of Shapes and sCATttered! A Story of Estimation with us! Young readers love STEAM books and I’m sure yours will find many happy readers.

Can you share with us a bit about the inspiration for these books? What was your initial spark? I guess I should go ahead and admit I’m more of a dog person. Though for some reason, cats gravitate to me. They follow me around houses, try to grab my hair, and stray cats seem to find me when I travel. I do appreciate kitty quirks and I enjoy watching them defy gravity and land on their feet. My first cat book in the series, is CATastrophe! A Story of Patterns. I wanted to create a story where the characters were struggling to make patterns but still landing on their feet so to speak. Casting a group of hyper, messy yet resourceful cats seemed like the perfect pairing. My publisher asked for four more books after that and the brainstorming began. I chose math skills relevant to kindergarten and first grade and ones that are also building blocks for second grade and up. I put the cats in relatable situations and made room for lots of mistakes. I taught in elementary schools (mostly first grade) for 31 years. What happens in my books is similar to what took place in my classroom. We would try out new math concepts in practical ways. We’d struggle, we’d make messes, then one day things would fall into place. Math is hard for so many kids. I want my books to help make it exciting.

Did you meet any challenges in your book’s journey from inspiration to completion? There are many challenges when writing a series. Uniformity is essential. The characters’ actions and reactions need to stay true to who they are. Language, voice, and pacing need to be consistent. My editors and I thought we should put the word “CAT” in each of the titles. Not so easy. I made a master list of CAT words and chose what I thought could work. I created stories and themes around the words while also figuring out how to include a math skill. sCATtered! A Story of Estimation, called for some disorganization to accompany the idea of being scattered, which is fitting because the concept of estimation, as it relates to elementary classrooms, can feel a bit that way. Kids basically need to make an educated guess despite not being able to actually count, or while dealing with weaknesses in number sense or visual perception. Young kids typically want to get the exact number, but the truth is, sometimes they are very far off the mark. In the story, my cat characters are shopping, baking, decorating, and cleaning for the arrival of their Grandma from Catmandu. They estimate in everything they do, giving readers a chance to see realistic applications of estimating and join in or choose a cat they think might be close in their guess. Jenn Harney’s illustrations provide the visual reinforcement kids need for math, while illuminating relatable family dynamics and challenges. CATawampus! A Story of Shapes focuses on a STEM project to build a robot and how wonky it gets. Kids often forget to check their design plans before they gather the best materials and adapt. Eventually they do all these steps through trial and error and this is echoed in the events of the story. Engineering projects call for the use of specific materials though they are often quite varied. In this story, the cats are searching for basic 2D shapes in their 3D world. As with young kids, they confuse or forget the characteristics such as, number of sides or corners. The cats rush to complete their robot and there are consequences. It’s in good fun and, best of all, they don’t give up. Overall, my goal for this series is to find organic, applicable ways to work math into the real world, while also conjuring up some laughs.

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. You’ve chosen to highlight math in these fun books. Why? I like to think that maybe math chose me because it’s hard to believe I chose it. Math has never been my favorite subject. Not even close. In fact, I can call it my least favorite. As a student, I found it boring and too precise for my creative, right-brained approaches to life. The idea for Arithmechicks Add Up, the first book in my other series about fuzzy chicks who do math, came as a result of combining art and addition while teaching first grade. I was always looking for ways to make math seem imaginative or colorful. My students who struggled in the subject, and even the ones who didn’t, appreciated my efforts. I loved hunting down math picture books that could reiterate what we were learning. When I wrote mine, I wanted them to be math plus story to equal a balance. One of the positives of math is that it is indeed all around us. Kids use it every day when they follow a schedule, sign into computers, or set an alarm. Knowing that math has a purpose helps promote interest and application. I hope my cats (and chicks) are helping kids feel supported and understood when it comes to the challenges of math. I also hope they love and relate to the cat shenanigans and emotions that the illustrator, Jenn Harney, has masterfully created.

What tip can you share with teachers who want to use your books in the classroom? I’d love to see educators use my books in small groups, large groups, and centers. Reading the books at whole group time is great for introducing a new skill or reinforcing an existing one. Small group time allows for more discussion and participation. Centers provide moments for close examination of illustrations and the Easter Eggs Jenn planted. Readers can’t wait to locate all of the worms, dragonflies, or toy mice on the pages! The cat books can go in reading baskets, libraries, reading rooms, and math, STEM, and language centers. Kids can illustrate their own cat pictures and math concepts or create different characters and mix math into their own original stories. Students can gather in groups to engineer robots out of shapes or work as individuals for a real robot rumpus! Teachers can fill jars with everyday objects and have kids estimate the contents. The inclusion of picture books in math instruction and the activities they can lead to are endless. Lastly, I hope educators who use my books in any form tag me on social media. I love witnessing and celebrating the efforts and inventiveness of teachers.

Congratulations on these book releases! What comes next for you? Can you give us a peek at what you are currently working on? Thank you so much! After these two books, I have a picture book titled, SO MANY BOOKS!, cowritten with Sue Fliess, coming out April 10. It’s a rhyming book about books! Then the fourth story in the CATastrophe Tale Series, CATerwaul! A Story of Sorting, releases in December, and the last one in the series, CATapult! A Story of Movement and Position, debuts in 2026. I’m working on writing a few other picture books, an early reader series, and some collaborations, while my agent shops a board book series, another early reader series, and multiple picture books. I’m actively pursuing school visits, workshops for writers and teachers, and I’m doing some educational writing. I try to work on many things at once so I don’t get distracted by rejection or riddled with impatience directed at the pace of the publishing industry. I should also add, none of the books I’m currently writing or submitting have anything to do with math. Science? Maybe.

About the author: Ann Marie Stephens is the author of numerous picture books including the Arithmechicks series, the CATastrophe! series, the upcoming So Many Books, coauthored with Sue Fliess, and more. Her books have been translated into several languages and have been featured on lists such as, Fuse #8, Children’s Book Council, and Hot Off the Press. Ann Marie’s poetry and literacy work has been included in Bon Appetit Magazine and on NPR. She is also a retired, award-winning elementary teacher with over 30 years in the classroom. While teaching, she received several grants for her inventive literacy projects. She’s taught dozens of original writing and education-based workshops for both children and educators. She was a contributing author for Kwame Alexander’s The Write Thing, and a co-writer for Scholastic’s Trait Crate Plus for third and fifth grade. She is represented by Emily Mitchell at Wernick & Pratt Agency and lives in Virginia. Website: https://www.annmariestephensbooks.com/ Instagram: amstephens_ X: amstephens_ Facebook: AMStephensAuthor Bluesky: amstephens.bsky.social