Can't Please 'Em All! Pete the Cat~Too Cool For School by Kimberly and James Dean

PETE WANTED TO LOOK COOL.

HE ASKS EVERYONE, "WHAT SHOULD I WEAR?"

Pete begins with his Mom.

"WEAR YOUR YELLOW SHIRT!" SHE SAYS. "IT'S MY FAVORITE!"

Pete puts on the yellow shirt and starts out for school. But everyone has a different suggestion. His big brother Bob likes the blue shirt better.

His teacher favors long pants, and the school bus driver prefers polka dot socks with his red shoes. Callie the cat says she loves his shorts with the fish print. Pete pulls the shorts on over his long pants, feeling rather silly, and when Grumpy Toad advises he wear cowboy boots with his ensemble, Pete is beginning to feel more than a bit ridiculous. Still, Emma Dog proposes that a striped tie would please her, and Coach counsels a two-toned baseball cap to set it all off.

Pete is way too hot in all those clothes. He wants to please everyone, but... does he look cool?

NO. PETE LOOKS SILLY.

Pete discovers a truth. You can't please everybody, so you might as well suit yourself. Pete sheds the extra clothes for his tee, his shorts, and his red shoes, and learns a lesson, To look cool...

.. BE YOURSELF!

Kimberly and James Dean's early reader, Pete the Cat: Too Cool for School (My First I Can Read) (Harper I-Can-Read Books), offers a little sartorial advice along with Harper's little reading lesson that will get the giggles as Pete sweats in front of an air conditioner on full blast and ponders the wisdom of crowd sourcing his school wardrobe. Youngsters just starting out with reading will find gentle humor, visual cues, and a few life lessons in the company of Pete the Cat.

Shopping for Spud Slacks! Potato Pants by Laurie Keller

Potato is a tuber who aspires to be a sartorial star. When he sees a sale flyer for high-fashion pants at Lance Vance's Family Pants Store, he knows he's gotta be there early. As the ad says...

"Once they're gone, they're GONE!

But Potato is no saggy-baggy-bottoms kind of guy.

"I want a stripey pair just like the ones in the window, with stripey suspenders for added stripey-ness!"

Potato's heart is set on a pair of haute couture Tuberto pants. However, Potato is not the only stripey pants shopper on the premises.

Eggplant has staked out a claim to the only pair of stripey pants that fits Potato. Eggplant snatches them up and threatens Potato, who's intimidated by threats of being mashed.

If he had potato boots he'd be shaking in them.

But the big-bottomed Eggplant has miscalculated the fit of the stripey pair, and when he pulls them on, there's an embarrassing RIP in the rear. Can Potato step in and score the ripped pants after all?

In her Potato Pants! (Henry Holt and Company), Theodor Seuss Geisel award winner Laurie Keller pulls out the puns and lays on the alliteration to tell a gloriously silly shopping story, utilizing satiric speech balloons from the would-be trendy 'tator dandy who finally snags the modish bottoms of his dreams in this stylish tale of sartorial aspirations. Artist Keller pulls out all the stops in her illustrations, stacking various media--markers, acrylic paints, colored pencil, potato printing, collage, and digital art--to give this one an amazing media mix to this delicious read-aloud of voguish vegetables. Writes Booklist, "A manic tale that’s going to be very hard to read without inducing “peels” of laughter . . . Keller constructs an alliteration-rich narrative using plenty of exclamation points and big type in multiple colors to crank the volume up even further. It’s potato pandemonium, any way you slice it.

You Can't Top Perfect! Green Pants by Kenneth Kraegel

Jameson only ever wore green pants.

His closet reveals pairs and pairs of identical green pants on the hangers.  When his mom occasionally tries to replace them with pants in other colors, he discreetly disposes of the replacements. He has a reason.

When he wore green pants, he could do anything.

In his green pants Jameson surprises and amazes his friends with his leaping dunks of the basketball. He performs perfect somersaults and breaks the water flawless when he dives. And when he powers up his boombox, his dancing is delightful. All done with Green Pants Power.

But one day Jameson's favorite cousin Amanda introduces him to bride-to-be Jo.

Jo had the nicest smile Jameson had ever seen.

She asks him if he would like to be in her wedding. Jameson is delighted, although he knows nothing about weddings. His mother fills him in later. Weddings are quite the big deal, she says. There is a lot of standing still, she adds. He has to smile for every photograph and there will be lots and lots of them. And he has to use good manners at the wedding supper.

"No problem!" said Jameson.

"Jameson," said Mom, "the tuxedo is black!"

"BLACK PANTS? Are you sure?"

Jameson is pleased with the rest of the tuxedo--the shirt, jacket, shoes, and all. He really likes the way it looks with his green pants. He looks sharp!

But Mom reminds him that he absolutely has to wear the black pants for the wedding.

On the big day Jameson puts on his tuxedo, all but the black pants. He still hasn't decided whether he CAN wear the black pants. Still in his green pants, holding the black pants over his arm on the steps of the church, his mother leaves him.

"I know you will figure it out," she says.

Jo even comes to the door, her smile more beautiful than ever, her eyes bright with happiness.

"I'll see you inside, Jameson!" she says.

The pressure is on! How will Jameson manage to keep his green pants on while meeting the dress code of the wedding? Young readers will get a good giggle out of the BIG REVEAL, in Kenneth Kraegel's latest, Green Pants (Candlewick Press, 2017). Author Kraegel builds some genuine suspense as Jameson is left, still indecisive, at the church door, and artist Kraegel's charming illustrations plant some funny sight gags of Jameson's rejected pants--a red pair worn by a neighbor's dog and a blue pair woven into a bird's nest in a tree along the way, but the best double-page spread shows how Jameson manages to keep his green pants while fitting right in with the wedding party. "This quirky kid and his loving family will instantly endear themselves to readers," says Kirkus in their starred review.