Common Ground: Pete the Cat and the New Guy by Kimberly and James Dean

There is a mooving van spotted in Pete the Cat's neighborhood!

WISE OLD OWL HAD A VIEW FROM HIS TREE.

PETE SAID, "HEY, OWL! WHAT DO YOU SEE?"

"ALL I SEE ARE GREEN SHOES AND A RED HAT." SAID OWL.

"SOUNDS LIKE MY KIND OF CAT," SAID PETE.

Most of the new kid is hidden by the large moving box he is toting toward his new house, so Pete, wearing his lucky red shoes, sets out on his skateboard to try to catch a closer look at what he hopes will be a new friend. He wants to say "Hi!" but finds that he's too shy to go up and knock.

But the next day, when the new guy come out to meet him, Pete blurts out the first thing that comes to mind:"

"YOU SEEM LIKE A DUCK AND LIKE A BEAVER, TOO!"

Gus explains that he's a platypus. Pete says  he thinks that being different is cool and takes him out to meet his old friends.

Squirrel takes it in stride and invites Gus to climb up and share his favorite tree. Pete joins him on the big branch, but although he tries, Gus just doesn't have the right stuff to scamper up trees. Gus is disappointed.

"I WISH I COULD CLIMB LIKE YOU, BUT CLIMBING IS JUST SOMETHING I  CAN'T DO."

Gus has no luck when he meets Grumpy Toad, who invites him to play leapfrog with them. Gus just can't jump very high or very far.  Octopus offers to teach him to juggle, but he discovers that juggling is beyond his reach, too.  Gus is feeling gloomy, and Pete can't think of anything that they can all do together.

But on Saturday, when Pete rolls over to try to cheer Gus up, he hears a really cool thump coming from Gus's garage.

"SWEET!"

GUS WAS ROCKING TO THE BEAT!

It seems that a groovy drummer is just what the guys in the neighborhood band need, in Kim and James Dean's newest (and already best-selling) cool cat picture book Pete the Cat and the New Guy (Harper, 2014). With the first days of school just ahead, it's good for readers to be reminded that kids who seem different in some way may indeed have qualities and capabilities that aren't obvious at first meeting. Also recent in the Pete the Cat catalog are Pete's beginning reader books, Pete the Cat and the Bad Banana (My First I Can Read), and Pete the Cat: A Pet for Pete (My First I Can Read).