I’m always of two minds about Pete the Cat.
On one hand, Pete himself is great. He’s an appealing character, and the colorful, cartoonish illustrations are fun. I want to have them on my walls independent of the story.
On the other hand, some of the stories are…loose. Casual. There’s sometimes not that much there, and the storytelling isn’t directly related to the images.
That’s the case with Kimberly and James Dean’s 20205 picture book Pete the Cat’s Cool New Ride. The map inside the front cover is bright and energetic, and Pete painting flames on his new car looks familiar, like a cat version of kids painting. Once Pete’s driving, though, readers learn his ride is “groovy” and that he feels “like one cool cat.” It isn’t just the authorial voice using this language: Grumpy Toad (who looks very friendly, not grumpy) says the car is “groovy” too.
The book starts in their person, but when the toad joins Pete, we get a line that starts “Me and you,” first person, and then we’re back to third person. The line that starts with “Me and you” ends with “one,” which rhymes with “fun” in the next line. On the next page, “Pete” and “street” are rhymed–but the following page doesn’t rhyme.
As Pete adds more friends, there’s some counting of the number of animal friends in the groovy car, but it happens in fits and starts: it is less a counting book than a sporadic addition book.
And the story itself is this: Pete drives his groovy car. He picks up friends until there are too many to fit. Then he switches to a “groovy bus” with “room for all of us,” returning to first person again.
I liked each image in the book, and always enjoy seeing Pete, but this is a light and somewhat fragmented book.
