A hungry cat gets a job hunting mice at a sumo training center (heya), but once the mice are gone he continues to stuff himself until he is too fat to chase the mice that have returned--so he decides to train with the sumo wrestlers, and SumoKitty becomes a scourge of mice and an inspiration to the wrestlers.

Poppy is a little pig that dreams of being a star, and even though her first attempts all fail, the support and love of her family and friends encourage her to keep trying and working hard to find something that she loves doing, and is good at.

Describes determination as the virtue of setting and working toward goals and suggests ways to show determination such as having willpower to complete a task, solving a problem, and learning new things.

Two best friends push off from shore for an aquatic adventure, but at every turn they have very different reactions to what is happening. The optimist sees opportunity, the pessimist sees danger. This delightful story of friendship subtly delivers a deeper message{u2014}life is what you make of it, and even when things seem darkest, don't give up, no matter what!

After fast-talking Fox leaves him with a large, green egg, Bear spends minutes, hours, days, and weeks lovingly caring for it with the help of his neighbor Hare.

Rosie Revere is no stranger to flops and fails, kerfuffles and catastrophes. After all, engineering is all about perseverance! But this time, Rosie has a really important project to tackle--one that feels much bigger than herself. Rosie's beloved Aunt Rose and her friends, the Raucous Riveters--a group of fun-loving gals who built airplanes during World War II--need help inventing something new. And Rosie is just the engineer for the job! After one...

A young aspiring engineer must first conquer her fear of failure.

"Noisy Nora is learning to play the violin, but her family isn't sure they can survive it! The lovable heroine of Noisy Nora returns in a new book that will charm parents and children alike. Nora is determined to play the violin, but her parents, sister Kate, and brother Jack are appalled by the terrible sounds that emerge during her practice sessions. Scrape and shriek, screech and squeak--everybody holds their ears. But when a special evening comes,...

A young boy is determined to create the perfect cake, but when his baking doesn't go quite as planned, he learns to embrace the unexpected.

Larry is a wrestler who somehow manages never to finish what he starts. Eventually his ability to take anything seriously lands him in the ring with Apollo Gourd. Will Larry hang in there to complete the match? How does a cucumber look in wrestling gear anyway? Find out in this lesson in perseverance where kids will learn that whenever you finish what you start, you come out a winner!