Noah Z. Jones

This book is fantastic! I initially came across it on a list of picture books that introduce kids to the concepts of poverty and homelessness. I think this is a very important topic for kids to learn that they often don’t until they are older, which causes many misconceptions in their early interactions with others.

Those Shoes tells the story of a boy who needs new shoes and really wants the ones that everyone else is wearing, you know: the high tops with the stripes on the sides. The shoes that make you look cool, and supposedly even run faster! But when his grandma can’t afford the shoes he wants, they decide to try and find them at local thrift stores. They go from store to store and finally find a pair that are perfect aside from the fact that they are too small. Still, Jeremy shoves his feet in and tries to wear the shoes. This of course end up working against the point of shoes and is hurting his feet. When Jeremy sees another boy in his class that also doesn’t seem to have enough money to afford new shoes, and whose feet are a little smaller than his, he eventually decides to give him the shoes. They are a perfect fit for his classmate and Jeremy is happy to see it even after he struggled with whether to give them up or not. Jeremy learns to be grateful for the snug, functional boots his grandma got him when it snows at the end of the book.

This book covers so many topics that are important for kids to see in books. First of all is the obvious topic of poverty and how there will be things your family won’t always be able to afford but you can still find ways to get what you need. Another topic is that of wanting the popular fads. We have all wanted something so bad before just because it’s what everyone else had, but it didn’t make that thing any better once we actually got it. The shoes were just shoes, and they weren’t even particularly suited for the season. Yet another great thing shown here is that Jeremy seems to live with just his grandma, so she is providing for them on her own and it shows a different family type other than the “nuclear” one that is more typically shown. I also really appreciate that instead of just giving his shoes over, it showed Jeremy really struggle with it at first. It’s not always easy to give up that idea of something you really wanted even though it would be better for someone else.

I also enjoyed the illustrations and would overall highly recommend this book as being both a great story and having super important topics for kids to learn about!… (mehr)