The postman brought a song-tastic gift for Tristan on behalf of Harper-Collins.
Since Tristan opened this book he has been absolutly besotted by the musical musings of the feline footwear fanatic that is Pete the Cat. This particular story is called 'Pete the Cat - I love my White Shoes' and is written by Eric Litwin and illustrated by James Dean. The story is beautifully written and the colourful illustrations really pop off the page.
The best word to describe this book is 'funky' because it really gets your toes tapping. As Pete walks along wearing his fabulous, favourite white shoes he accidentally stands in strawberries, blueberries and some other colourful substances which turn his shoes from white to red, to blue respectively but does he get upset? Does he cry? No way - he is far too cool to let minor problems interfere with strutting his stuff so he continues about his adventure whilst continuing to sing his funky, upbeat song. The song is, unsurprisingly, about his shoes and his all consuming love for them. I suppose that the message here is to encourage children not to get too upset about little accidents, spilt ice cream, broken crayons or lost bouncy balls for example because irritating little things happen all the time but they don't have to stop anyone from having fun. The story also teaches children about the relationship between objects and colour - it will certainly come in handy as we continue learning about colour and light with our prism as part of our science syllabus.
We read the story and sang the song to our our made-up tune several times before realising that the story and song can be listened to online (the website address is on the cover of the book). Wow - this turned the experience up a notch and before long Tristan and I were joined by Theo and dad as we all rocked out and sang along to the 'I love my white shoes' song. I am not exaggerating in the slightest - this book is amazingly good fun and I can completely understand why it is on the New York Times best selling picture book list.
The song was played on a loop as we downloaded the free printable activity sheet from the same website. The activity suggested is to pin the shoe on the cat however the boys decided to use the shoe pictures in their own way. Theo made a spot the difference shoe puzzle for his brother to use as well as designing a selection of super hero themed shoes. Tristan coloured his shoes purple because he decided that Pete the Cat would step in some purple paint next. I sat with him at the computer as he worked out how to spell the words ' I love my purple shoes' which he then printed, cut out and stuck on to a piece of purple paper.
As a treat for Tristan, the rest of us too - shhh don't tell him, dad bought the 'Pete the Cat' app for the iPad. Everyone has tried this fun hide and seek based game and enjoyed it - Tristan thinks it is beyond wonderful. He has been singing 'rock-out, rock-out' which is inspired completely by his new found favourite book character - Pete.
I can not praise this book any more highly, it is just delightful. Some books have the ability to transcend the pages and magically lodge themselves in your mind forever and this is one of those books. I can't stop joyfully humming the shoe song and honestly it makes me happy - that effect is multiplied a hundredfold in my four year old as he begins already incredibly happy - imagine then, if you will, how excited he becomes when the book comes down from the bookshelf and the song gets switched on! The pages of this book contain unadulterated jolliness and will have your little one joyfully jumping and jiving along.
This one gets a massive, musical thumbs up from us all and as it is such a wonderful book Harper-Collins and I have decided to team up and offer one lucky reader the chance to win a brand new copy of this great children's title.
All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is to tell us what colour shoes your child would love to own and why. The winner will be chosen at random later this week.
Good luck!
Disclaimer: All the views and opinions in this review are my own. The product was provided to me free of charge but I was not obligated to give a positive review. I only review educationally beneficial products. My review is an honest one.
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