Shoe Bop!

Singer (City Lullaby ) and Nakata (Don’t Step on the Sky ) extol the joys of shoe shopping in a compendium of rhymed verses accompanied by a dizzying display of possibilities, from loafers to hiking boots, waders, Chinese slippers and jellies—to name a tiny fraction of the footwear in the watercolor spot illustrations. After opening with an ode to her purple sneakers (“You purple sneakers.../ I’ve loved with all my heart./ We walked, we danced, we ran for miles./ Too bad you fell apart”), the protagonist leads readers through the myriad choices in a shoe store Imelda Marcos would have adored. Shoe lovers will want to linger on each page to make their own selections from generous assortments Nakata renders: chimp and hippo bedroom slippers, polka-dotted turquoise galoshes,ginghamsneakers. Occasional vignettes portray the young shopper imagining herself wearing the shoes in question. The busy pages have the breathless feel of a shopping spree; the closing full-page image is an exultant finale. Ages 3–up. (June)