Hurry, Kate, or You’ll Be Late!

A young girl stops to call out all the sights and sounds on her morning trip to pre-school, 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.

Janice N. Harrington is an award-winning poet and children’s book author. Her children’s books include Buzzing with Questions: The Inquisitive Mind of Charles Henry Turner, an NSTA/CBC Best STEM Book, Going North, and The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County, an ALA Notable Book and an Irma S. and James H. Black Award Honor Book. She teaches creative writing and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Visit her at janiceharrington.com.

Tiffany Rose is the author and illustrator of M Is for Melanin: A Celebration of the Black Child, which received starred reviews in Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal, and Dear Reader: A Love Letter to Libraries, which also received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews. She is a full-time teacher, part time author-illustrator, and world traveler. She is currently living in Shanghai, China. Visit her at asouthpawdraws.com.