Tippytoes the Urban Raccoon is Karen E. Smith's fourth children's book about discovering nature literacy. The rhyming story is about a family of raccoons who invade a city back lane, trying to find food in garbage cans while a man and a young boy who live across the back lane from one another wrestle with the idea of how to deal with the raccoons. The story ends on a positive note when the man and boy decide to collaborate on how the raccoon situation should be handled.
The book was written to support literacy development and connection to nature, especially for urban youths who often do not have the chance to be involved in nature literacies. The book promotes inter-generational reading practices especially through rhyming, pictures, photos, and the interchangeable use of both print books and e-readers.