New Shoes by Chris Raschka (review)

Uh-oh—there's a hole in our narrator's old shoes. It's therefore time for a shoe-shopping adventure in this simply told account of what can be a genuinely exciting (or alarming) event in a preschooler's life. Off to the store with Mommy goes the protagonist, who then finds several different shoe possibilities, tries them on, and goes home delighted with a brand new pair of red sneakers. The present-tense narration is process focused ("Mommy puts on my socks. Mommy puts on my old shoes") but still personable, with giggles at the occasional tickled foot and joy at running in (and showing off) the new shoes. Raschka's clever visual perspective takes this outing from solid to superb: every full-bleed page in the artist's familiar liquid watercolors displays the scene from the POV of our narrator looking down at little kid knees, feet, and shoes for a view that's about as you-are-there as it gets. The perspective device could spark some early art discussions, but this will mostly serve as a delightful, somewhat Mr. Rogersesque introduction and celebration of a small but significant life activity. DS