I need to pay more attention to the messages in children’s books. I have read them to my kids for 23 plus years now, or they have then read them to me once they began reading on their own. We read a variety of stuff-chapter books, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, self-help, how to, inspirational-the list goes on. But as I said, I need to pay more attention to the MESSAGES in children’s books. Madi is 7 and she loves “Pete the Cat” books by Eric Litwin. If you haven’t read “Pete the Cat,” let me share Madi’s favorite. It is called, “Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes.” It’s about a cat wearing brand new tennis shoes, while a bird watches him walk. As Pete walks along, smiling, he sings about loving his white shoes when suddenly he steps in a pile of strawberries and his shoes lose their original color. However, instead of complaining or crying, Pete simply starts singing a slightly different song, still smiling and walking. He sings, “I love my red shoes…” Important to note is that the bird doesn’t judge Pete, or say anything to him about how stupid he was for stepping in the strawberries.
Not long after this, Pete steps in a pile of blueberries. Again, the bird is watching. Pete changes his tune and starts singing, “I love my blue shoes…” (Again, the bird does not say, “You should watch where you are going” or “You’re messing up your shoes”. The bird doesn’t belittle, judge or put Pete down in any way and Pete is still smiling. The story continues with Pete stepping in a large mud puddle and his shoes turn brown. You guessed it. The bird and Pete continue their trek with Pete smiling and singing about how he loves his brown shoes. Next, Pete steps into a bucket of water and all of the blue, red and brown wash away, leaving his shoes white again, but quite wet. Of course Pete smiles and sings “I love my WET shoes…” while continuing down the street. The author writes at the end of the story (as we see Pete walking along, still smiling, with the bird on his back and four different colored shoes on his feet), that the moral is really quite simple: “No matter what you step in, keep walking along and singing your song…because it’s all good.”
I realize that not everything that happens in today’s world is good. I realize that bad things-very bad things-happen, but as I write this article, I am thinking more along the lines of how my family and I approached COVID-19 with the homeschooling, working from home, ZOOM meetings, not seeing Grandma and Grandpa, wearing masks, missing their friends, social distancing, kindergarten graduation on the front porch, drive-by birthday parties, cancellations of college and pro sports, and things Madi and her six-year-old sister and nine year old brother have been experiencing these last couple of months. They are sad about all the things I mentioned including NOT going to summer movies, Princess Camp, Lego Camp, Nature Camp, JumpStart to First Grade, etc. So, after reading this story, we realized that despite all of these challenges or difficult/bad things they could actually name many good things that were still occurring. For starters, at least for a while all of their siblings are at home. Both of their parents are still working. We’ve made our own version of summer movies on Thursdays. We’ve had theme-night dinners where we’ve all dressed up. So far, we are all healthy. We are doing more crafts, spending more time together, and having mini-stay-cations. We are still making plenty of good memories and finding ways to support each other and those around us. Things might not be the way we would have expected or envisioned, but they could be worse, so we are plugging along, singing our song, and not just planning to get through things, but learning to grow through all of them.
By the way, let’s not forget the importance of the bird in the book. He is there for Pete, no matter what. He is non-judgmental, just there to support.
With all that is going on right now, supporting each other and knowing we have each other’s support, is beyond important. Have a fantastic day!
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