Shoe Magic

Shoe Magic

From School Library Journal Kindergarten-Grade 4-Using their footwear as points of departure, Grimes presents a cycle of poems about kids' everyday lives and dreams for the future. Salena's sandals conjure warm-weather pleasures ("Summer picnics/At the beach,/Dragonflies/In easy reach,/Cruising town/In sandaled feet"), while Talisha's toe shoes point to a career in ballet ("Your tattered pink/Tricks those who think/You're too frail to hold form"). "Slippers" offers a fitting benediction at the end of a child's busy day: "Rest your soles./Spread your toes./Curl, breathe deep./There now, Dreamer,/Hush-/Sleep." Widener's exuberant acrylic paintings capture the joys and hopes expressed in each of the poems. A multicultural cast of boys and girls engage in sports activities, perform onstage, and enjoy the outdoors. Their elongated arms and legs seem to be in constant motion and make an interesting contrast to the rounded shape of their faces. This collection clearly celebrates its child readers.Kathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CT Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. A salute to shoes and the ambitions of the heart shows tap shoes performing to Broadway tunes, cleats tearing up a path to the goal line, and soft white soles easing the sick in hospitals. From Booklist Gr. 2-5, younger for reading aloud. "The shoe rack / Is stacked / With promise, / With dreams / Waiting to wake." Each poem in Grimes' latest collection uses a different type of shoe to explore a youngster's pride of accomplishment and hope for the future. A ballerina talks about her scuffed ballet shoes "tough enough . . . to strike a stubborn pose"; a young runner longing for fancy footwear realizes "It's not the shoes / that do the runnin'. / It's the feet." The poetry is uneven, mixing tightly rhymed couplets and loosened rhythm and rhyme with occasionally forced results; many poems work better out loud. But the voices convey a joyful purpose as they describe the hard work of the present and dreams about the future. The bright, foot-centric artwork, brimming with fanciful, stylized shapes, plays up the diverse speakers' exuberance and energy, though the pictures work best when paired with a poem on a white background. Then the words have more room to create their own images. Young ones struggling to express their own experiences in art and sports will find inspiration here. Gillian EngbergCopyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved About the Author NIKKI GRIMES's acclaimed body of work for children includes Talkin' About Bessie, a 2003 Coretta Scott King Author Award honor book. She is also the recipient of the 2006 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Ms. Grimes lives in Corona, California.