Katrina Tangen

Children’s Author

Katrina Tangen

Book #2 Announcement!

· · Leave a Comment

I’m excited to announce that my second picture book has been acquired by Charlesbridge Publishing!

It’s part of their new STEAMWORKS collection, showing all kinds of kids using science and math in their everyday lives. It’s a partnership with Count Play Explore, an initiative by the Office of Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, Early Care and Education Department. So that’s kind of cool because Charlesbridge is in the Boston area, my college stomping grounds (I have often crossed bridges over the Charles River!). And the other is in my home state—if not anywhere near my hometown. 🙂

RAMP IT UP! combines my experience as a wheelchair with my love of LEGO! It includes simple machines (specifically inclined planes), geometry, and spatial reasoning. It’s illustrated by Wendy Wen, who also uses a wheelchair.

RAMP IT UP! is about a girl named Zoe who uses a manual wheelchair. She builds an awesome castle (with a pool on the roof!) from bricks that are technically not LEGOs for legal reasons. 🙂 Zoe wants to throw a pool party for her toys and her friends’ toys. But she realizes there’s no way for her toys that use wheels to get to the pool! So Zoe builds a ramp, experimenting with different angles to design one that’s safe. Car and Miles (a toy that uses a wheelchair) take on the exciting job of helping her test them!

RAMP IT UP! will be available in both Spanish and English. Look for it this fall!

CYBILS Finalist!!

· · Leave a Comment

Wow, COPY THAT, COPY CAT is a finalist for the Cybils Awards!

The CYBILS are judged by book bloggers. They have a really extensive process; this article is really interesting. The finalists were announced January 1st, so that was a pretty awesome way to start the new year! The winner in each category will be announced February 14th.

Best of the Year Lists

· · Leave a Comment

‘Tis the season for best of the year lists and holiday gift guides! On December 1st, COPY THAT, COPY CAT got to join in the fun.

First, it was named a Bookstagang Best Book of the Year! Bookstagang is a big group of picture book reviewers on Instagram. The judges read basically all of the children’s books for the year, so it’s a big honor!


On the same day, COPY THAT, COPY CAT appeared on Betsy Bird’s Great Board Books list! She’s a big time librarian blogger who does a series of best of the year lists—one for each day of December. I’ve read her blog for a long time, so I was very excited to discover Copy Cat there on the first day! (I may have squealed a bit.) And then I was shocked to find it on the second day’s list too, for Picture Book Readalouds!

Here’s Betsy’s review:

Given all that, I decided to google myself and discovered COPY CAT on a holiday gift guide by Reading Rockets! So that capped off a very exciting two days!

It’s a little funny that COPY THAT, COPY CAT is on so many board book lists. It’s technically a board book in form, but not in content. Real board books are shorter and designed for babies or toddlers. COPY CAT is a 32-page picture book designed for ages 4-8. It just happens to have thicker pages because of the die-cuts and flaps. It is sturdy enough for toddlers though, and we tried to make it work for a wide range of ages. It’s pretty cool that it’s getting recognition, since it would have been easy for it to fall between the cracks!

Best Book Launch Ever!

· · Leave a Comment

I’m homebound by chronic illness, so I couldn’t have an in-person book launch for COPY THAT, COPY CAT!. Even a virtual launch was more than I could handle (although I still might attempt that at some point). So I just asked for chocolate chip cookies to celebrate. I joked my family should make them in the shape of cats—and then they actually did!

That was already enough to make a great book launch!

Then my mom came home with a rocket balloon to celebrate my “launch.” And that was enough for me to declare the world’s smallest book launch party a huge success!

And then the morning of my launch, I woke up to a living room full of decorations! I was soooo surprised! My mom stayed up all night working on them.


Later my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew came by for cat ears and cookies, to make it a real party. (The cat theme is especially fun since I’m also a “Kat”.)


I couldn’t have had a better book launch even if I was healthy enough to go to a hundred bookstores. I’m so grateful to my family for making it so special!!