Back-to-School: Pete the Cat's Got Class by James Dean

"IT'S MATH TIME!" SAYS PETE'S TEACHER, MR. G.

PETE THE CAT LOVES MATH. HE LOVES HOW THE NUMBERS GO TOGETHER.

Pete is cool with math at school. He even enjoys math homework!

But his buddy Tom doesn't feel that way.

"I HATE MATH!" SAYS TOM.

"YOU JUST DON'T LOVE IT YET!" SAYS PETE.

Pete goes home after school with Tom to help him out with his math.

"HELP IS COOL!"

But Tom is not cool with math. He pronounces it boring.

When counting up colored blocks doesn't do the trick with addition, Pete gets an idea. Tom loves his cars, and Pete gets Tom's attention by turning the homework problems into car exercises, and turning the mathematical digits into race cars. Tom gets the point of math, and the two race through their homework in record time.

But after school the next day, Tom and Pete find themselves called on the carpet by Mr. G., who accuses Pete of letting Tom copy his homework. Can Tom stand up to Mr. G. and demonstrate that he now understands addition?

In James Dean's latest, Pete the Cat's Got Class (Harper, 2016), Tom makes it into the winner's circle, using his collection of cars as exhibit A for Arithmetic, and he and Pete are on their way to getting an A on their report cards. Dean's familiar blue cat, the class of his class, is still walkin' in his school shoes in a special lesson in how to be cool at school, just in time for the back-to-school season. This inexpensive little paperback also includes a large "School Is Cool" poster and a set of punch-out flash cards as a vehicle for polishing up those basic math skills before the bell rings for the first day back.