"Patterns are the foundation of which math is built. Catastrophe cleverly shows the importance of patterns as ten cats and two fish make a splash in this hilarious adventure story."
This book is a wonderful discovery and it would be perfect for your preschool collection. Catastrophe was published in 2021 and it is still available but here in Australia it is over AUS$32. I have talked about books that explore patterns in previous posts, but this book takes a very different approach.
The cats line up to board their boat ready for their fishing expedition (after all cats love to eat fish). Their life vests form a pattern - orange green orange green orange green green green green orange. Oh no this pattern needs fixing. The cats quickly rearrange themselves and now everyone is standing in line and the pattern is perfect. In the canoe the kittens begin to row - row row meow row row row meow row meow meow. Oh no they are just going in circles. The captain tells his crew to find the core pattern - row row meow row row meow row row meow. And so their trip continues. Can they catch those fish or will their boat capsize? What a CATastrophe! Luckily they have a warm camp fire, s'mores and their cosy beds to return to - mmm purr purr mmm purr purr mmm purr purrr mmm purr purr.
Publisher blurb: Nine kittens go on an exciting boating adventure that’s a (funny) catastrophe in this playful picture book that demonstrates the key math concept of patterns. A crew of hungry kittens and their captain head to the lake to catch some dinner, but the fish have surprises in store for them. Even before the cats encounter the fish, they run into trouble. What happens when confused kitties paddle every which way? Or when they all lean in the same direction? A pattern is needed to avoid a catastrophe! Patterns are the foundation on which math is built. Using strong rhythm, clever wordplay, and countable characters, CATastrophe! is a fun read-aloud that also shows what patterns can do. Helpful backmatter will deepen readers’ understanding and challenge them to find more patterns in this book and in our world. There’s also much to find in the illustrations—including a dragonfly and worm that each appear twenty times.
Ann Marie Stephens specializes in books that explore maths concepts (see below). At the back of this book, Catastrophe, she explains the patterns she has used in her crazy story. You can hear Ann Marie talking about her book here.
Stephens deftly incorporates the concepts of patterns and pattern cores into her simple tale and includes an enjoyable explanatory page at the close as well as integrated seek-and-find challenges. Harney’s bright, energy-filled cartoons are a great match and maintain a fine balance of cute, color, comedy…and cats. Kirkus
Here is the website for the illustrator Jenn Harney.
Music and poetry contain examples of patterns. In poetry we can describe rhyming lines using pattern labels.
Here are some of the patterns in music:
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