If you have any doubt about that, there is a bunch of Fort Dodge Community School District students who will fill you in on the important details.

Those pre-schoolers, kindergarteners, first graders and second graders got the scoop on the fictional feline by spending some time Wednesday with the man who created him, author and musician Eric Litwin.

But their time with the children’s book writer wasn’t just a story hour. It also involved singing and what Litwin called “disco line dancing.” The multipurpose room at the Early Childhood Center was filled with young students for four performances.

Pete the Cat is the star of the book “Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes.” Litwin wrote that book in 2008. It was his first book and it launched a series of books about the cat. He wrote the first four; other authors have since taken over.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Shailia Hanson, a kindergarten teacher at the Early Childhood Center in Fort Dodge, holds a Pete the Cat book while the book's author, Eric Litwin, leads children in a song. Litwin spent part of Wednesday at the school, giving presentations on all the good things that can come from reading.

Some of his other books are about the Nut family in which Dad is an acorn and his wife and children are other kinds of nuts. He also wrote a book called “The Poop Song” which, rather than being a foray into gross-out humor, is intended to be an aid to potty training.

“They come from my imagination,” Litwin said of his books before his 11 a.m. performance for Early Childhood Center students.

“All of my books have positive messages,” he added. “That’s my inspiration — positivity.”

He has also written a non-fiction book for teachers called “The Power of Joyful Reading.”

“My main message is that we can make reading fun,” he said.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Eric Litwin, an author and musician, leads kindergarteners in a song Wednesday morning at the Early Childhood Center in Fort Dodge. Next to him, in a Pete the Cat jacket, is kindergarten teacher Joni Olson. Many of the students are wearing Pete the Cat hats. Litwin wrote the first four books in the Pete the Cat series.

Litwin has also released eight music CDs.

The author, who lives in Washington, D.C., does hundreds of shows across the country.

His local visit was courtesy of the Fort Dodge High School Alumni Association, which annually pays for a childrens’ book author to visit.

The first and second graders from Butler, Cooper, Duncombe and Feelhaver elementary schools were brought to the Early Childhood Center in school buses for their time with Litwin.

Litwin, who describes himself as a “recovering teacher,” said his performances are reading theater that include repetition, rhyme and musicality.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Kindergarteners fill the multipurpose room in the Early Childhood Center in Fort Dodge Wednesday morning for a presentation by Eric Litwin. Many of the students are wearing Pete the Cat hats. Litwin wrote the first four books in the Pete the Cat series.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Eric Litwin speaks to a group of students about the importance of reading Wednesday morning at the Early Childhood Center in Fort Dodge.

- Messenger photo by Bill Shea
A selection of books by author Eric Litwin were on display at the Early Childhood Center in Fort Dodge Wednesday during his presentations there.