#60: Pillow-Cat Books

In which I met a cat named Pillow Cat

Pillow-Cat Books

Ukrainian Village, Manhattan: 328 East 9th street

Just a few doors down from Veselka and several weed stores is Pillow-Cat Books, a bookstore dedicated to the animal lovers of the Lower East Side. Stepping into Pillow-Cat feels more like entering a living room than a store– it is small, there is a single upholstered chair (with a real life, not particularly pillowy but super cute cat in it) and there are actually not that many books. The shelves skew childy but vintage, expensive childy. There’s some pretty interesting finds including Pogo collections, Henson artifacts, and a whole lot of Ghibli books, but the prices on these knocked me out of the running. Thankfully, there were some more contemporary children's books that were within my price range. 

What I got:

Pigs Make Me Sneeze

Why is Mo Willems so adept at capturing the hearts of young readers? The answer is simplicity. His books are silly but unsubtle, satisfyingly repetitive, and visually uncluttered, all of which make these books particularly captivating to early readers. Less is more y’all! My second graders are absolutely obsessed with Willems’ Elephant and Piggie series, but I was unfamiliar with this entry. My students will be thrilled to read this over and over and over and over again.

Bonus Vanity:

I was feeling myself yesterday.