About the Preschool Book

Katy Kangaroo is so sad because she has no pocket to carry her baby in. All of the other mother kangaroos have nice big pockets to carry their babies. Katy's son Freddy can't keep up when his mother hops. He needs to be carried. Katy asks all the other animals how they carry their babies. She hopes that one of them can help her solve her problem.

The other animals carry their babies on their backs or in their arms. Poor Katy can't do that because Freddy's arms are too small to hold on to her back and Katy's arms are too small to hold Freddy. Other animals have their children walk behind them but Katy doesn't want Freddy to have to walk anymore. What will poor Katy do?

From the Reviewer

Preschoolers will love trying to think of a solution to Katy Kangaroo's problem. The colorful and fun illustrations make each page exciting. Preschoolers will learn how different animals take care of their babies. The casual dialog makes this book fun to read for both parents and preschoolers.

Katy goes to the city and finds a very innovative way to carry her baby. When she returns she has more pockets than any other kangaroo mother and she could not be happier. Katy No-Pocket teaches preschoolers valuable problem solving skills. Katy is determined to keep looking until she finds a solution to her problem.

Hi! I'm Rachel Lister, the Preschool Education writer at PreschoolRock.com. I live in Utah with my husband and two beautiful boys. When my oldest son was born, I quit my teaching job and opened a home daycare and preschool. I love to help preschoolers learn about the world around them. They make life interesting and I can't imagine doing anything different. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, feel free to contact me.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Read aloud daily for at least 15 minutes. This single habit is the strongest predictor of kindergarten reading readiness and long-term academic success.

• Children's questions are assessment data. The questions a child asks reveal their current conceptual level and what they're ready to learn next.

• Avoid academic pressure before age 5. Preschool children's brains are not developmentally ready for formal academic instruction, and premature pressure backfires.

• Answer "why" questions fully and honestly. A child who gets real answers to their questions develops deeper curiosity than one whose questions are dismissed or oversimplified.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should my preschooler be reading before kindergarten?

Reading before kindergarten is possible for some children and developmentally not expected of most. The literacy skills that predict reading success — phonological awareness (hearing sounds in words), letter knowledge, print awareness, and vocabulary — are the appropriate focus before age 5. These skills are built through: reading aloud daily, nursery rhymes and songs, alphabet activities, and rich conversation. A preschooler who loves books, knows their letters, and has a large vocabulary is fully reading-ready, whether or not they can decode words independently.

How much learning time should a preschooler have per day?

All of it — because preschoolers learn continuously through every interaction with their environment. The question of "learning time" implies that learning is separate from living, which it isn't at this age. A preschooler who plays freely, has rich conversations, is read to, helps in the kitchen, plays outdoors, and is exposed to music and art is having the richest possible educational experience. Formal, scheduled "learning time" is less productive than a generally enriched daily environment.

Related reading: See also our alphabet activities and our read-aloud guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 📚 Pre-Reading Skills — Activities that involve letters, sounds, rhymes, and print directly build the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that are the two strongest predictors of successful reading development.
• ⚡ Executive Function — Planning, sequencing steps, holding rules in mind while acting, and stopping a prepotent response all build executive function — the cluster of cognitive skills most strongly predictive of long-term academic and life success.
• 🤔 Critical Thinking — Being asked "why do you think that?" and forming and defending an answer develops the analytical reasoning children need for reading comprehension, mathematics, and evidence-based argumentation.
• ✏️ Pre-Writing Development — Drawing, tracing, and early mark-making develop the fine motor control and visual-motor integration that handwriting requires — making every drawing activity a contribution to writing readiness.

Poor Katy Kangaroo has no pocket to carry her baby in like the other mother kangaroos do. Little Freddy can't keep up with his mother when she hops. Katy asks all the other animals how they carry their babies, trying to find a solution to her problem.

From the Preschool Book

"Big tears rolled down Katy Kangaroo's brown face. Poor Katy was crying because she didn't have a pocket like other mother kangaroos. Freddy was Katy Kangaroo's little boy and he needed a pocket to ride in. All grown-up kangaroos take awfully big hops and little kangaroos, like Freddy, get left far behind unless their mothers have nice pockets to carry them in. And poor Katy didn't have any pocket at all."