Two Shoes, Blue Shoes, New Shoes!

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

“See what I can do, shoes! / Skipping down the street, shoes, / Look
at who we meet, shoes! / Mustn’t stop to talk, shoes, / Got too far to
walk, shoes! / Swinging from a rope, shoes, / With an antelope, shoes! /
Riding on a whale, shoes, / See him splash his tail, shoes! / Eating
bread and cheese, shoes, / With two chimpanzees, shoes! / Jumping off a
log, shoes, / Find a purple frog, shoes! / Racing at the zoo, shoes, /
Passed a kangaroo, shoes! /Dancing on the moon, shoes, / With a blue
baboon, shoes!”

The above is a sample of this volume’s bouncy rhymes about a happy
little girl with a brand-new pair of blue shoes. Before retiring to
become a writer, Sally Fitz-Gibbon worked with learning-disabled
children and it is hard to miss the influence. The verse defies a
“straight read.” Before they know it, readers are caught up in the
sprightly beat, and physical effort is required to resist breaking into
song. Incidentally, the rhyming verse goes very well to the old Geoff
Mack tune “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Illustrations by Farida Zaman
have a comic Sesame Street tone. Highly recommended.