Author Study

Author Study
Andrea Packer
Salem College
EDUC 630Y - Dr. Kirby
Spring 2014

Author Study

Eric Litwin is the bestselling author of the first four books of the Pete the Cat picture
book series. The titles of these first four books are Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, Pete the
Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, and Pete the Cat
Saves Christmas. If you walk into my preschool classroom, all four of these books could be
recited to you by just about any of my children. The simple, engaging rhyming of the words with
the addition of singing parts of the book allows the children to be engaged in the storyline while
also learning the words fairly quickly.
Litwin was born in New York City in 1966 and began his career as a classroom teacher
which later turned into two other careers as a musician and author. Pete the Cat: I Love My
White Shoes became a local hit before soaring to the New York Times bestseller list in 2010. He
has since authored three other Pete books while also releasing several childrens music cds and
co-created an early music education company called The Learning Groove that includes
parents in their childrens music classes.
James Dean is the illustrator of the Pete the Cat books. His inspiration for Pete came from
his own cat, but since black cats are often associated with bad luck, he painted Pete blue. For 13
years, James has filled art gallery shows with Pete and now Pete is a very beloved childrens
book character. Dean was born in Fort Payne, Alabama and his early years consisted majorly of
watching his self-taught artist father produce art. In high school, he became a professional
musician but not wanting to be broke like his father, he pursued academics seriously. In college,
he pursued a degree in electrical engineering but longed to break free. He took a drawing class
while in college, graduated and began working in engineering. Longing to produce art, he left his
job, gave himself a year to become a successful artist and began painting. After he adopted a

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kitten from a local animal shelter, he began painting the kitten doing things around the house and
thats when his career began.
Though there are many books about Pete, the four I have chosen are the ones that Litwin
and Dean published together which include Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, Pete the Cat:
Rocking in My School Shoes, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, and Pete the Cat Saves
Christmas. This unit in my preschool classroom will include goals in line with the Teaching
Strategies Creative Curriculum objectives and will include recognizing colors, counting, one to
one correspondence, and retelling of a story.
I will introduce the unit by talking about the author of the story. I will show them his
picture, talk about what he does, show them a video of him singing and discuss what the job of
an author is. I will also talk about the Dean, show his picture and talk about what the job of an
illustrator is. We will also talk about what it means for stories to be part of a series.
As a part of the unit, the following activities would be included:
1. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes After reading the book, I will have cards that have
pictures of the different parts of the story for the children to use to put the story in
sequential order on a pocket chart. After they have completed putting the story in order,
we will then take a picture walk back through the story and talk about the order they have
placed the cards. This also allows the children to check their work and change the order
of the sequence. An extension of this activity would be as you are rereading the story,
have cards with the different things Pete steps in and then cards for what color his shoes
turn. As you read, have the children predict what will happen next and match the color of
his shoes to what he steps in.

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2. Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons After reading the book, the children will
retell the story and extend it by using a pipe cleaner and threading the corresponding
number of buttons the book talks about onto each pipe cleaner. Counting each button and
using one to one correspondence is crucial in order to get the right number of buttons on
the pipe cleaner. This is also working on their fine motor skills as they thread the pipe
cleaner through the buttons holes. An extension would be to have cards with numbers 120 and allow the children to thread the corresponding number of buttons on the pipe
cleaner to the number they are able to recognize. This would allow you to assess their
number knowledge. The buttons are different colors in the story so another extension of
this activity would be to have lots of different color buttons and have the children sort the
buttons according to their color. Adding different sizes and colors would differentiate the
activity to higher order thinking children.
3. Pete the Cat Saves Christmas This book has many of the elements of a traditional
Christmas story here in the U.S. including Santa, reindeer, delivering presents, the North
Pole, etc. We would break down the who, what, where, why of this story by
brainstorming and using picture cue cards on a pocket chart. Then, in individual sessions,
I would speak to each child about the who, what, where and why of their Christmas story.
(recalling another time and place) I would then have them draw a picture of their favorite
Christmas memory and display their story in the classroom.
4. Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes To begin, you would need to photograph all
your childrens feet with their shoes on. Then, develop a class book with pictures of the
childrens shoes. A page may read, I love my school shoes! Guess who? The children
will then make predictions of whose school shoes they are. Create a lift tab under the
Guess who? and their name will be written under the tab. This activity allows you to

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assess for name recognition. An extension of this activity would be to make another class
book with the children picking their favorite activity in the classroom, you taking a
picture of them doing that activity, and then developing a class book that might be titled
Preschools Adventures in their School Shoes.
5. Learning Prepositions with Pete This activity requires a stuffed Pete. Children will
work on learning the prepositions under, in front of, beside, between, around, on top of,
and above. Children would be asked to place Pete in the different positions on a bucket.
This would allow the teacher to assess which words they have a grasp on already. After
this has been completed, the teacher will go back and talk about the words that the child
missed. A visualization tool that is helpful is to have pictures of Pete in the different
positions with the prepositional word on the picture. This helps the children to visualize
what each word means. An extension to this activity would be to allow the children to put
Pete around their classroom or even take him home, take pictures and then make a book
about his adventures while also using the prepositions. Having the parents of the different
language speakers in your room translate the book into their language would allow the
book to be enjoyed by all.
Assessments are done in preschool by observing children and writing notes on what
transpires. Setting up activities that allow the children to play while learning is what
preschool is all about. Throughout these activities, the main assessment tool is observing the
children interacting with the activity, documenting, and then finding ways to further that
childs knowledge of the concept. I included several extension activities in this unit, but there
are so many more things that could be done with these books. Assessing the whole unit for
my little ones would include asking them questions before reading the stories that may
include: What places do you think (post: What places did..) Pete visits? Do you think Pete is

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a nice cat? What would you do if a button popped off your shirt? If you stepped in
blueberries, what color would you shoes turn? After the unit is done, asking these questions
again would help to determine the information the child has gained from the unit.

Resources:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/532902568379401388/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/26880928999018302/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/408420259931773259/
http://www.pre-kpages.com/learning-prepositions-with-pete-the-cat/
http://www.heidisongs.com/blog/2013/09/kindergarten-lesson-plans-week-four-its-pete-week2.html
https://www.petethecat.com/about
http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Georgia-Literary-Map/Georgia-Author-Detail.php?
record_id=194