Great book for group participation! Borrowed the idea of giving each child 4 round "button" stickers to put on their shirts and remove one at a time as Pete's buttons pop off, from the teachers at LEAP.
The kids love popping off their buttons and singing along with Pete. Surprise, very valuable ending to the story, too!

Great book on so many levels! We loved reading this book together with my daughter.

ALA Notable Children’s Books – Younger Readers Category: 2013
Flicker Tale Children’s Book Award (North Dakota): Picture Books

***This review is slightly more formal, as it is a homework assignment for my Services Children/Young Adults class***

Pete the Cat loves the buttons on his shirt so much that he creates a song. But as Pete’s buttons slowly fall off, will he still have a reason to sing?

KC Rating: 5/5

I would definitely recommend Pete the Cat books to parents. This book is fun, engaging, and delivers a great story with meaning, along with basic math skills.

The illustrations in this book are full of colour and detail. They are made to look like a child could have drawn it, while still maintaining a fresh and artistic touch. The lines in the illustrations are both thick and thin, clearly defining and adding detail to the objects drawn. The shape of the illustrations is realistic and clear, with the colour overlapping some of the objects to add a warm and child-like feel to the book. While the pictures look chalky and easily drawn, the actual pages feel smooth, and a child could grip the pages with practice.

The book’s format is standard, and the text is created to look like part of the pictures. The plot is easy and repetitive for small children to follow, and is very fun to read out loud. It was designed to be read to and with the child, not for the child to read it alone.

The book introduces basic math, starting at 4 and subtracting until we get to 0, making it a counting picture book suitable for babies (due to the pattern and repetitiveness) up to Grade 3. The buttons are arranged in a line, making it easy for children to follow the buttons as they start to fall off. The numbers are in both words and numerals, and the readers can subtract/count with the story, helping with verbal recognition of the words. The buttons themselves are bright colours and easy to identify. There isn’t any white space, but the buttons are obvious enough for a small child to see and recognize.

The main reason I love this picture book is because of the great meaning behind the story. Pete is happy even when he loses all of his buttons. The moral to the story is that Pete still finds something to sing about, even when it seems like he is losing everything. Everyone can learn something from Pete the Cat.

Author Information: created by James Dean ; story by Eric Litwin
Publishing Information: New York : Harper, c2012.

Pete the Cat is so proud of his four groovy buttons, but they keep popping off and rolling away. What will Pete do without his buttons?

This very groovy cat with a very groovy tune is back with a new story about the four groovy buttons on his snazzy shirt.

Did Pete cry? GOODNESS, NO! Buttons come and buttons go! My favorite of the Pete the Cat books.

Favorite story! For so many reasons.

My son was a back up singer for this book! It was hilarious to see his shoulders bopping up and down!

Loved this book and know the grandchildren would love it as well!

Pete the Cat rocks. Another great book.

We love this third installment of Pete the Cat just as much as the first one!