cover image New Shoes, Red Shoes

New Shoes, Red Shoes

Susan Rollins. Orchard Books (NY), $15.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-531-30268-2

There's nothing like a smart new pair of red party shoes to put spring in a girl's step, and British author/artist Rollings covers the whole sweep of the experience. The trip to the shoe store provides the vivacious, moon-faced girl with opportunity to reflect on the diversity of footwear in the world: ""Flat shoes, summer shoes./ Friends with very pointy shoes."" The momentous purchase of crimson Mary Janes (with sharp-looking green flower buckles) occupies the center of the book, and then comes the gratifying payoff for this conspicuous consumption: showing off the shoes at a rollicking birthday celebration. The heavily repetitious rhymes lack the luster of patent leather, but Rollings's full-bleed gouache illustrations (which alternate between single- and double-page formats) glow with saturated, Crayola-like color, and her protagonist's pride radiates off the page. Ages 3-6. (Mar.)