Those Shoes

Book: Those Shoes
Author: Maribeth Boelts

Illustrator: Noah Z. Jones
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Major Awards: 

• Young Hoosier Award (Indiana)
• Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children's Book of the Month
• READ Boston Best Readaloud Award Winner
• Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices List
• Charlotte Zolotow Award, Highly Commended Selection
• Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Bulletin Blue Ribbon

Age Group: 2nd - 4th

Summary: Jeremy has a dream about buying black high-top shoes with two white stripes. However, when he asks his grandma, she says he doesn't "need" them. All of his friends got those pairs of shoes and Jeremy is jealous whenever he sees them. One day, his shoes ended up breaking and the principal gave him a pair of animal velcro shoes, not the ones he wanted. He came back to the classroom and everybody started teasing and laughing at what he had on his feet. The weekend came along and his grandma decided to take him to get those shoes, but didn't end up getting the shoes since the price was too high. That was until they reached a thrift store and Jeremy saw a pair of the exact shoes. They weren't Jeremy's size but still, they bought it anyways hoping that it might stretch one day. He decided to give his shoes to his friend Antonio, the only person who didn't laugh at him that day, by secretly dropping it off at his doorstep. Jeremy saw him wearing it the next day at school and Antonio had known it was him. Antonio thanked him for doing the good deed, and Jeremy was happy with his boots that no one's worn before.   

Evaluation & Comments: I thought this was a good book for teaching students about wants and needs. Like Jeremy experiences in the book, he wanted the black shoes with white stripes because majority of everybody else at school has a pair. However, in the end, he realized that he didn't need it and gave it to his friend who would better utilize it than him. For activities, give students a cut-out of a shoe big enough for them to write a couple lines for a story of an experience they've had with their shoes. After they're done, you could hang it around the classroom all year for decoration. As for an optional whole class activity, there could be recall of the story and do a cause and effect chart. Have students tell some causes and some effects that you choose from the story that are important. That also allows you to know if they were paying attention or not.