Ballet Cat: The Totally Secret Secret (Bob Shea)

Ballet Cat and Sparkle Pony need something to do. They discuss the various crafts and activities they could work on, games they could play but Ballet Cat is of a single mind. At every turn, she finds ways to wiggle out and bring focus back on Ballet.

So ballet is what it will be! When Sparkle Pony appears down in the dumps, he tells her about his Secret Secret and his fear that she will no longer want to be friends if she learns it. The two realize what a special friendship they share as they work through this conundrum.

Kids who like the Dinosaur vs. books will quickly gel with this kids book. Readers of the Mo Willems Pigeon books will also jive with this very quickly. At approx 30 pages, with lots of bright colors, it will hold their attention just long enough to put a smile on their faces.

Kiddo Perspective:
In our household, Ballet Cat sounds like a clone of Foofa on Yo Gabba Gabba, Sparkle Pony sounds like Eyore's cousin. It was a ton of fun to read and Bob Shea packed so much personality into these two characters. My son was really into it. He was down for the painted characters and the bright splotchy outside the lines coloring.

Adult Perspective:
My son is not a boy who is afraid of pink or other 'girl things' which is awesome because this book should not be quickly written off as boy or girl-centric. It is chock full of cool images and teaches a good lesson about doing what other people want to do rather than always getting your way.

Bob Shea is the author of the Dinosaur vs Bedtime and other great books. This book is no less a hit, it is fun to read and is filled with sarcasm that adults can pick up. My wife and I would have this on our shelves even if we had no kids, as it is so freaking cute.

I think that older kids might be okay with this book in E-format, my son however needs a dead tree copy. I don't know how parents can keep a kids attention when looking at an iPad or other tablet.. Paper baby, that's the ticket.

Highly suggested book, I look forward to putting this in our library and seeing what the rest of this new series will be like.

This book was provided for review purposes by the publisher. I appreciate this because my children are going to eat me out of house and home.