Most Popular Books by Peter Catalanotto

Meet best pals Monkey and Robot. “Good-humored silliness prevails” (Publishers Weekly) in this snappy collection of four stories! Monkey and Robot are friends—the best kind. They simply belong together, and it never matters that silly Monkey is furry, or that gentle Robot can rust. What matters is their sharing: movies and popcorn, games of hide-and-seek, a fish tank for…a hippopotamus? Joining the ranks of such noteworthy pairs as Bert and Ernie, Frog and Toad, and Henry and Mudge, Monkey & Robot celebrates friendship in this chapter book of four charming tales that are ideal for young readers.

Luke finds out that family can be fantastic just the way it is in this witty picture book from the author-illustrator of Matthew ABCs and Question Boy Meets Little Miss Know-It-All. Luke is used to having Mom and Dad all to himself, to play soccer and build forts with. But now that they are expecting a new baby, they always are too tired or too busy to play. So Luke dreams of having new parents to play with—the newbies! His new parents have all the time in the world for Luke, but some things just aren’t quite right...like the way new Dad’s pancakes are different, and how new Mom doesn’t cut sandwiches into triangles. Getting all the attention is wonderful, but Luke wonders if perhaps his original parents are still the best parents for him!

Monkey and Robot are the best of friends—and they have the best of adventures! This chapter book includes four (more!) playful stories. Monkey always gets in the wildest messes. And Robot is always there to help him out. After all, what are best friends for? “Readers looking for funny friendship stories but who think that Frog and Toad and other early readers are a tad too easy will find this unlikely duo just right,” says Horn Book Magazine about the Monkey and Robot series.

Emily''s Pop-Pop is shocked when he hears that Emily and Vincetta Louise don''t know what a veteran is. With Veterans Day coming up, he volunteers to talk to their class about the holiday and the people it honors. But Emily is worried. Pop-Pop sometimes falls asleep at the strangest times. What if he falls asleep in front of the whole class? Everyone would laugh! Vinni and Emily come up with a plan. With so much to learn, they have to make sure that no one sleeps through this Veterans Day!

Second-grader Emily''s memorable day includes a new school bus, a forgotten lunch bag, a special cafeteria meal, and a new friendship.

Emily is tired of pumpkins. At school she and her friend Vincetta Louise have been doing pumpkin math, pumpkin field trips, and pumpkin writing. Can''t they just carve jack-o-lanterns? But even this ends up being an assignment: the kids have to make pumpkin self-portraits. Then something happens to Emily''s jack-o-lantern, and her friendship with Vinni is tested. The two girls get past their quarrel—but will they ever want to see a pumpkin again?

Mrs. Tuttle has her hands full with a class of twenty-five boys -- and to make matters worse, they''re all named Matthew! Could there be room for one more Matthew? Mrs. Tuttle thinks so...and she doesn''t even have trouble figuring out which boy is which. The new Matthew fits right in with the others as readers discover that each Matthew is unique in his own special, alphabetical way.

"What a gorgeous painting," exclaimed the judge of Ms. Fair''s first-grade art contest. "What a beautiful rabbit!" For Emily, the words are a shock. Her painting is of her dog, Thor. Not a rabbit. But instead of thinking: What''s wrong with this judge? Emily takes the words, and the judgment, to heart. Just as she takes her art. Not everyone, not Ms. Fair, or even Emily''s best friend, Kelly, can see that. At first.

Sixteen calico kittens -- the number of colors in a crayon box. Their mother, Sophie, knows one from another...but how do you think Mrs. Tuttle tells those kittens apart? Peter Catalanotto''s sequel to his Matthew A.B.C. and Daisy 1, 2, 3 invites long looking, counting, and laughing!

It’s a factual face-off in this superhero picture book from all-star Peter Catalanotto, now with an audio recording. Question Boy wants answers. He lives for them. But none of the town’s action heroes—Oil Man, Paperboy, Police Woman—can satisfy Question Boy’s heroic need to know! Enter Little Miss Know-It-All. She has an answer for every who-what-where-when-and-how…and what she doesn’t know she simply makes up. And what about you? Ready for a wrangle? Keen on a quibble? Then come along to the town park to cheer the two of them on! Vibrant, rich illustrations merge fantasy with reality in this exploration of questions, answers, and what it means to be right.

Tommy is eager to listen with his father to the first American spacewalk, but his father has to go to work, and when he comes home in the evening they have some trouble reconnecting.

Ivan loves a good story. Like that one about the three bears or those three gruff billy goats. Where else can a dog find such playmates action fun... or a cookie? Ivan''s own good story lands him just where he loves to be. In your lap.

Presents four stories about best friends Monkey and Robot, who celebrate Robot''s Built-Day, face an exterminator, take care of a parakeet, and learn important things about babies.

Mrs. Tuttle teaches a dog obedience class to twenty Dalmatians who are all named Daisy, but each one has some feature that makes her easily identifiable.

In a story where almost everything is black and white, Dylan, a Dalmatian, escapes from his home and becomes involved in a soccer game between penguins and skunks.

Although her father is busy working as an artist at home, he still finds time to spend with his daughter.

A lonely New York City resident finds companionship and good cheer at the Westway Cafe, where dreams come true.

Monkey and Robot are back with more adventures. In this beginning reader graphic novel, the two show how much fun opposites can have together. They try to become superheroes, to travel back in time, to study turtles, and to become famous. Robot is the practical one while Monkey has the creative ideas. The two combine for a lot of zany humor and sweet friendship.

When Mr. Mumble gets a bird in his throat, no one can understand him.

At bedtime on Christmas Eve, Katie is visited by the Sandman, Jack Frost, and the Tooth Fairy, all of whom hastily leave when they hear the arrival of the most important visitor of all.

Second-grader Emily worries that her grandfather, who has narcolepsy, will fall asleep when he visits her class to talk about Veterans Day.

A loved book lifts you -- comforts, excites, entices. Book, in words and paintings, captures the feeling of opening to page one -- for the first or the fiftieth time - and entering the worlds of drama, imagination, and fun promised beyond it. A girl in red flannel pj''s reaches toward a panel in the night sky. The panel, one of four, bears a B. Light floods the girl''s face, all anticipation, for she is all readers. And then she is inside, inside the B-O-O-K, words streaming toward her, beckoning, circling her, music in their meaning and their sound A castle, a cave - its walls dancing with wild ponies, one of which joins the girl on her journey -- these are passing wonders on the way to the source. Writer and reader meet "as the gate of the book swings wide, " a culmination caught in a breathtaking sequence of spreads. Look at the girl on the jacket for a hint of how Book feels, a sensory adventure that ends with a benediction: "May it hold you. May it set you free."

As she and a friend are loading a wagon with cookies and fans they have made, a young girl repeats the story of a wondrous Rolling Store that used to come to the country where Granddaddy lived when he was young.

Emily paints four pictures and enters one in the first-grade art contest, but the judge interprets Emily''s entry as a rabbit instead of a dog.