Children's Series Review: Pete the Cat by James Dean and Eric Litwin

Summary for Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes:

Pete the Cat goes walking down the street wearing his brand new white shoes. Along the way, his shoes change from white to red to blue to brown to WET as he steps in piles of strawberries, blueberries, and other big messes! But no matter what color his shoes are, Pete keeps movin' and groovin' and singing his song...because it's all good. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes asks the reader questions about the colors of different foods and objects.

Don't miss Pete's other adventures, including Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, Pete the Cat Saves Christmas, and Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses.

 

Age Group: 4-8 years

Source: Purchased

Reviewed By: Kelli

 

Review:

Kaitlyn loves cats, so I bought the first Pete the Cat book thinking she might enjoy it, based on the fact that the main character is a cat.  The illustrations are different from the books we usually read: these illustrations are funky and more grown-up than the books we've been reading.  They are what I'd call edgy in children's literature. 

 

Anyway, the first time we read Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, we both fell in love with this series.  I went on to buy book two, Rocking in My School Shoes, and Pete's version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm.  But, I see myself buying many more Pete books in the future (there are 16 books in the series, after all!).  These books are so much fun---fun to read and fun for Kaitlyn.  They all have a great cadence to them, and while the text doesn't rhyme, it flows well and almost has a beat to it.  This makes it easy for me to memorize the text, and I've caught Kaitlyn repeating entire paragraphs of the story shortly after we've read one of these books. 

 

What I like the most about the Pete books, though, is Pete's unflappable nature.  A common theme in this series is that something unexpected will happen to Pete.  The text will read: "Does Pete worry?  Goodness, no!  He keeps walking along and singing his song."  Pete is a good reminder to me to take things in stride, and a great example for children as well.  I love that even though he gets his white shoes dirty, he never misses a beat, and simply changes his song from "I love my white shoes" to "I love my red/blue/brown/wet shoes" (depending on what he's stepped in). 

 

Pete's version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm is no different from the original, save the very cool illustrations.  The illustrations alone make this book worth a buy. Kaitlyn loves that the animals look different from her other books and especially loves the expressions on their faces.

 

I love the Pete the Cat series and highly recommend it for children ages 2 and up!