Shoe Baby - Hardcover

Joyce Dunbar is the author of more than seventy books for children, including the bestselling TELL ME SOMETHING HAPPY BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP. She says, "I wanted to write a book for my daughter to illustrate. I tried to think of all the things she loves to draw — shoes, animals, birds, giants, babies — and to write a text that had the nonsensical exuberance of a nursery rhyme. But this cannot be forced. For six years I was stuck halfway through. Then one gray day in November, the rest of it just plopped onto the page. It had been there all the time!" Joyce Dunbar lives in Norwich, England.

Polly Dunbar is the author-illustrator of DOG BLUE and FLYAWAY KATIE, which KIRKUS REVIEWS called "a joyous cure for a case of the doldrums. . . exuberant, to say the least." Polly Dunbar says, "SHOE BABY is the first book I have illustrated for my mum. It was great fun to do, as it is such a fantastical story and has so many exciting things to draw. Also — I love shoes!" Polly Dunbar lives and works in London.

PreSchool-Grade 1–In a shoe you might think/There is not much to do, but for the baby who is hiding in it, it becomes a boat to sail away in, a car for going to the zoo, a plane, and even a place to hold a tea party for the king and queen. How do you do? asks the delighted child as he travels the world. But when Papa laments his lost shoe and Mama cries over the loss of her baby, the youngster grows and grows until he grows Right out of that shoe! With his gleeful Peekaboo!' the three are reunited. The pictures breathe life into the brief text. The whimsical mixed-media cartoon illustrations are saturated with color. Baby's shoe, a brilliant red with decorative buttons and blue-and-white striped laces, stands out on a page of other fancy footwear. The zoo houses a giraffe with blue polka dots, a blue monkey, and a blue elephant sporting red shoes. Flying birds bear designs of hearts, stars, and pinwheels. This bit of fantasy, paired with Beatrice Schenk de Regniers's What Can You Do with a Shoe? (S & S, 1997) may encourage youngsters to come up with unusual possibilities for the objects around them.–Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community College, CT
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