Put Your Shoes On & Get Ready!

In this anecdotal picture book, Georgia’s first Black senator revisits his childhood, offering takeaways that young readers can step into. As a boy, Warnock sometimes resists his father’s daily call to “Get up! Get dressed! Put your shoes on and get ready!” Slipping on his dad’s boots instead of his own prompts this guidance: “You’ve got to put the right shoes on for the work you’re meant to do.” His dad models this, working on weekdays and preaching on weekends: “During the week, my father lifted broken cars, and on Sundays... he lifted people.” Inspired to become a preacher himself, Warnock realizes “I didn’t have the shoes for that job yet,” but grows into them through college and adulthood, becoming senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, once led by Martin Luther King Jr. Foregrounding portraiture and images of figures’ footwear, Grooms’s illustrations have the sweep of murals, portraying characters of varying abilities and skin tones, and communicating Warnock’s purpose-driven efforts. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)