Books like Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons
By Eric Litwin
For the kid who needs proof that losing something doesn't have to ruin the day, this one turns every setback into a reason to keep singing. Chill, musical, buttons-popping-off cool.
A laid-back cat struts down the street in brand-new white shoes, stepping in strawberries, blueberries, and other messes that change their color again and again — but he never stops singing.
Enslaved people in 19th-century Louisiana count down the days through endless labor — slopping hogs, chopping logs, plucking hens — toward Sunday afternoon, when they gather in New Orleans' Congo Square to sing, dance, and briefly live free.
A groovy cat's rainy day surfing plans get cancelled, but instead of getting sad, he turns a big box into a launchpad for his imagination.
A collection of twenty original poems, each one paired with a different technique for performing it out loud — from tongue twisters to whispers to poems built for a whole class to shout together.
An anxious squirrel refuses to leave his nut tree, keeping an emergency kit ready for tarantulas, sharks and killer bees — until an accident finally knocks him right out of it.
A cheerful, fact-filled tour of the skull turns something spooky into something worth celebrating, showing every person and animal you know is carrying one around under their skin.
A duckling too odd-looking for his own barnyard is mocked and driven off, then must survive hunters and harsh seasons alone before discovering what he truly is.
A cheerful taxi driver named Dan cruises through town picking up a band member by member, each new passenger adding fresh sounds and colors to the growing crowd inside his cab.
A rhyming picture book lists all the things boys and girls are supposed to like — football, fairy songs, kittens, ballet — then flips each expectation with three cheerful words: except when they don't.
A duck driving his truck gets stuck fast in the mud, and it will take friends pitching in together to pull him free.
A man walks down the road and meets a donkey with only three legs, then keeps adding one silly detail after another until the description spirals into an entirely absurd creature.
