[upbeat music] - Hi, everybody, my name is Maria.

And this is...?

- Miller.

- Miller.

And this is Hopper, Hopper is very excited.

And Miller is, how old are you, Miller, now?

- 11.

- 11.

And our sweet Hopper is four-years-old.

So today we are going to read a book to you, and the name of the book is... - Perfect Partners.

- Perfect Partners, okay?

And on the cover, what do you see, Miller?

- [Miller] A cat that has a paintbrush, and it looks like the cat likes to paint.

- So it's a cat with a paintbrush, and he looks quite happy about painting.

And there's a whole bunch of stuff that you would use- - Art supplies.

- To paint.

Yes, art supplies, I forgot the word for a second.

And, yeah, so the author of the book is Mary Amato, and the illustrator is Rashin Kheiriyeh.

So I am so excited to read this book.

Cat love purring.

Purr.

- And?

- Parading.

- And?

- Pouncing.

- And?

- Posing.

- [Maria] Lots of Ps.

And, of course, another P, polishing off whatever was on her plate.

But most of all, cat loved...?

- Painting.

- That's another P. Painting is my...?

- Passion.

- [Maria] Passion, another P. Cat said to herself, she does love to paint, but sometimes it can be- - Lonely.

- Lonely.

Yes, Sometimes painting can be a one person activity unless you're in an art club, right?

Or you're painting with your friends or something like that.

So she sees this poster, one day cat saw an interesting poster.

- [Miller] Do you love to paint?

Meet other painters!

Bring your brushes and let's paint together.

Friday, The Art Club.

- What a nice invitation!

Inviting her to paint, and all she needs to bring is her paint brushes, right?

Okay, she couldn't wait to meet other cats just like her.

So she just assumed, she made an assumption, right, that it should be the other cats just like her there.

How perfect!

- Perfect!

- Cat purred.

But on Friday night she felt a pang of anxiety.

Why do you think she felt anxious, Miller?

- Because she was meeting new people that she's never met before.

- Yeah, and that's very normal, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- When do feel anxious sometimes?

- Usually sometimes like when I was going to kindergarten, I felt very anxious.

- Oh yeah, because it was a new school, you were meeting new friends, it's very normal to feel anxious when you're doing something new.

And these are the thoughts that are going through her head.

What if no one else comes?

- [Miller] What if the other cats don't like my painting?

- What if the other cats don't like me?

Sometimes we worry that people will not like us.

And usually they do.

"Pishposh," she said to herself, "you need partners in art.

Give it a try, cat!"

[Maria chuckles] I think sometimes we have to talk to ourselves, right?

- Off she pedaled to the club.

- Off she pedaled.

By the time she arrived, the place was packed.

Meow!

I guess that's her way of saying hello in cat language, and she can't see who is there.

"Ruff."

"Ruff."

"Ruff."

"Ruff."

Oh, something about your ruff made Hopper come right back.

Hopper, you wanna come sit with us?

Come on, come on.

Come on, you heard the ruffing?

Hopper heard the ruffing, he wanted to come back, he's back.

Oh!

- And then scared.

- [Maria] Oh, I guess she got nervous, right?

The ruffing sort of startled her.

And what happened?

- [Miller] She jumped, and she knocked over a lot of paint.

- [Maria] She knocked over a whole bunch of the paint.

And look at the expression on their faces.

Are they upset with her?

- They are angry because she knocked over all the paint, and all the things with that.

- [Maria] I don't think they're angry, I think they look surprised.

- Yeah.

- They seem sweet, they just seem a little surprised like, "Hey, what happened?"

Cat panicked and pedaled home.

- [Miller] Why even try?

- Why even try?

The next day, she tried purring and parading and pouncing and posing, but she felt more alone than ever before.

She began to pace.

Pace means you're walking up and down.

- "You need partners in art, cat."

She said to herself, "Perhaps you should try again."

- Oh, it's true.

I like the self-talk.

Sometimes we do need to just talk to ourselves, push ourselves to do new things.

All week cat painted, and painted, and painted, but she's painting alone, right?

- Hmm.

- By Friday she was prepared, she packed up her pictures and her paintbrushes, and off she pedaled.

Again, the place was packed, cat peeked in.

"Ruff."

[laughs] - Yeah.

- Oh, she's greeting them in their language, very cute.

And they go... - "Meow."

- "Meow."

"Meow."

- "Meow."

- Oh, that's so sweet.

- "Meow."

- They're speaking each other's language.

Now every Friday night, partners in paint, in art paint passionately together.

Squeak, oh, we have a new friend, that's a little mouse.

[laughs] And I'm sure the mouse will be very welcome.

The end.

What a lovely story!

So I'm in my kitchen because I needed to find a surface where we could paint.

And Miller is going to paint a cat.

So the thing about this is that we have different painting supplies at home.

We have these dot paints, we have watercolors, but there's so many interesting things that you can use at home to paint.

You can use food coloring, if an adult lets you mix it with water.

You can even paint with fruit, you could use the juice from a piece like a blueberry, or strawberry to paint, or you could use chalk or crayons, or something like that.

So there are many ways in which you can paint without paint, but today we're going to use paint.

So, Miller, we're going to get started.

I wanna make sure everyone can see your work.

We thought you could paint a cat.

How does that sound?

- Good.

- But you could paint the dog, you paint the little mouse that came in.

So what would you like to do, Miller, to start painting your cats?

- I'd like to use these.

- The watercolors, okay.

- Yes.

- So I'm gonna open.

So what are you thinking?

What are you thinking?

Do you think maybe...

I'm thinking about the face of the cat.

What shape could you use for that?

- A circle.

- A circle.

So you're gonna paint your circle.

Okay.

So Miller is painting his circle, and here we go.

And then... Oh, you know what?

There we... Oh, very nice.

Very nice.

Okay.

And what is that?

Oh my gosh, great job, Miller.

So I can see that he is making the shape of the cat.

Okay.

Excellent.

Okay.

And then, Miller, what other part of the body are you going to do next?

Now I am going to do the ear- - Yeah.

- The ear- - No, like fill in the ears.

- Fill in the ears.

- And the nose and- - Oh-oh!

- Like the circumference.

- Okay, so what colors are you going to use for that?

- Use the, like... - And let me show, everyone can see.

Okay, here you go.

So you're going to do the ears now.

Excellent!

- I'm gonna use the red.

- Oh, nice.

That's a great idea.

That's a great idea.

And excellent!

And then now you're going to do other parts of her face?

- I'm going to do the nose.

- The nose.

I love it.

- For the nose I'm gonna use.

- Oh, the dot.

A great idea.

And what about the eyes?

- We'll make it have... We'll do these.

- What color?

And so I love the way you are using these different types of paint.

- Black.

- Okay, and you can paint your animal in any way you want.

It's looking very cute.

I love your cat, Miller.

[laughs] And then what are those?

Are the little legs and then a tail.

It needs a nice long squiggly tail.

[laughs] Perfect.

And hold up your card.

- Perfect.

- Perfect.

And here [laughs] is Miller's little cat.

And, of course, any animal you paint, or anything you paint will be perfect.

- Perfect.

- Thank you for listening to our story, and thank you for watching us paint, and hopefully painting with us.

We will see you soon.

Have a great day!

Bye.

- Bye.