Picture Book Blog #2

Title: "Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes"
Written By: Eric Litwin
Illustrated By: James Dean
Publisher: Harper Collins
Copyright: 2010
Number of Pages:  40
Genre: Picture Book

     "Pete the Cat" is an entertaining book full of singing and engaging color. Pete loves his white shoes, except, they do not stay white!

     Illustrations drawn for this book give it a cartoony, playful feel. They do a great job of portraying how Pete's shoes change colors. I particularly like how with each color change of the shoes, there is a page that consist of other things portraying the color. For example, when Pete's shoes were blue, there was a page that not only showed the blue shoes, but it also showed Pete holding a blue umbrella to stay dry from the blue rain. All the illustrations in this book are great for bringing out the color scheme. 

Grade: Kindergarten 

Content Area/Standard: Cheerfulness and Creativity

     To bring this book into the classroom, the teacher could have each student take off one shoe and put them in a circle among the class. The class could discuss all the different colors of shoes they see, and then come up with a way that they could be cheerful or help others be cheerful for each color. The teacher could make a chart that hangs in the classroom with each shoe color and what it meant. Therefore, each day the students can come in and associate the color of their shoe to the chart to see what kind act or cheerful deed they can strive to accomplish. This is a way to get the students thinking creatively and encourage them in a fun way to be cheerful people. 

      This is a fun book that does a great job of teaching kids that even when things we think are bad happen, we can try to be cheerful and turn them into a good situation. Pete the cat was creative in the fact that he saw the situation as one that gave him many different colors of shoes. Having a positive outlook on life is important to teach young children, and "Pete the Cat" is a great book to start passing on this lesson. 

Also! This is a great book to incorporate student interaction through singing as the teacher reads along!