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Books by Jennie
All of Jennie's books have been made in collaboration with children!
This book received special recognition at the 2015 NAEYC conference.
An estimated 2 million children in the United States have a parent in jail or prison. How do these children cope?
With that in mind, artist and educator Jennie Lou Harriman wrote and illustrated the children’s book Waiting for Daddy, a story aimed at helping children of incarcerated parents use creative expression to feel better. Jennie’s co-author was Kylie Ann Flye, the girl upon whom the main character of Waiting for Daddy is based. She was seven-years-old when the book was written. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photographs taken by Harriman.
The story is about a young girl who wants more than anything to be with her father, but cannot because he is in prison. She discovers many ways to cope with her loss through creative expression, the natural world, and play.
Each page of the story includes an open-ended question or an explanatory statement to help children express and share feelings and stories. Harriman has also included activities for parents and teachers to use with children experiencing loss, for instance, making puppets with faces depicting different emotions or planting a garden, as Ann did in the story.
The story was developed to use with children ages 3 to 8 directly affected by incarceration and to help raise awareness and empathy for families in this situation, but children who are separated from loved ones for any reason may find the book and its activities helpful in dealing with their emotions.
This is a book about numbers, letters, shapes, and feelings. Artist and educator Jennie Harriman collaborated with fifty preschool children, ages three to five, plus their teachers and parents, to make this book.
She asked children what animals, toys, and games where their favorites. With lists of favorites in hand, parents and teachers found the items at home or in the classroom.
The children and the items were then photographed to use in the book, which is being sold as a fundraiser for Green Mountain Children's Center, a NAEYC accredited child care facility in White River Junction, VT.
Counting Through the Seasons is an interdisciplinary book that focuses on the following math concepts: counting, ordering, pattern, categorizing, symmetry, size, comparing, grouping, measurement, spatial relationships, addition...and let’s not forget zero!The illustrations and accompanying questions also help children learn color recognition and improve their visual discrimination. The pages vary to include different levels of difficulty. The images for the book are based on science-the four seasons.
Specific words are used in the book to increase science vocabulary: clam, scallop, maple, oak, monarch, robin, sap, and hibernation. Each season in the book includes a page with an open-ended question meant to foster creative storytelling and develop language skills. This book was made in Vermont. Look for the pages especially relevant to the children of this state: maple leaves and trees, sap buckets, wood fires and firewood, and mud season!
Woodworking with children is a fun, fulfilling, and educational activity that builds confidence in both adults and children. Teaching children how to use real tools fosters respect, responsibility, and trust, through an experiential, tactile, physical activity. This enhances brain development. Woodworking also provides opportunities for children to learn skills related to math, science, and art. The projects in this book are progressive: the easiest are first, and skills build on each other.
The projects included are based on different interest areas: the sanding block is a science activity, the boat is a water table or bathtub activity, the sewing stick is a fine motor activity, the counting board is a math activity, the airplane is a block area activity, and the bed and baby are dramatic play activities. This instructional book also teaches adults and children how to use tools safely and effectively.
When children and older adults spend time together, what unfolds is the importance of relationships at any age. This book highlights how we live, learn, play and grow with the help of one another.
This book illustrates imaginative air, land, and water transportation in the steampunk world.
