Pop Goes the Button: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin

"MY BUTTONS, MY BUTTONS,
MY FOUR GROOVY BUTTONS," PETE SANG.

Pete the Cat, famed for his footwear, is back, this time in another sartorial tale, this time of a bright yellow shirt with four groovy buttons, in songster-author Eric Litwin's latest list topper, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons(HarperCollins, 2012).

Pete the Cat loves his four big, groovy buttons, appropriately primary colored (plus green) down the front of his shirt. But when Pete takes off on his skateboard for an outing, a "costume malfunction" occurs. POP! Off comes the first button, bouncing away into whatever black hole all lost buttons go. How many buttons does this cool cat have left?

DOES PETE CRY? GOODNESS, NO!

Not Pete! As this best-selling hero always does, Pete keeps right on singing. Pete sings on while the next three groovy buttons take their leave as well. How many buttons does Pete have NOW, as his buttonless shirt hangs unfastened...?

Do not worry, do not care. There's one button that's still there, as Pete hastens to point out: his BELLY BUTTON!. And optimist Pete always has a song to fit the situation:

"STUFF WILL COME AND STUFF WILL GO,
DO WE CRY? GOODNESS NO!"

With those totally appealing faux-naif illustrations by James Dean, which look as if they were colored by a careful Kindergarten hand, and a bouncy Litwin-type tune (downloadable from the included HarperCollins' link) to sing along with, kids will enjoy joining in the refrain to the countdown to Pete's cute little belly button and his message to look always on the sunny side. For a bright and bouncy taste of this song, see the Pete the Cat trailer here.

Litwin's and Dean's previous best-selling Pete the Cat books include Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, and forthcoming in the fall for the festive season, Pete the Cat Saves Christmas.