New Shoes by Susan Lee Meyer and illustrated by Eric Velasquez

 

New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer and Eric Velasquez
              • Historical Fiction
              • K-4
Summary:
This is a story that takes place around the 1950s and it centers around a young African American girl named Ella Mae. In Ella Mae's family, they do not have a lot of money, so they have to use her cousin's old shoes. However, this time, her cousin's shoes do not fit her. This excites Ella Mae, because she has never had new shoes that she got to pick out. Her excitement is soon foiled once at the shoe store, when she has to wait for help and is not allowed to try on shoes, because she has darker skin. At the end, Ella Mae and her cousin open up a shoe store of their own, where everyone can try on any shoes they want and buy them for just 10 cents and an old pair of shoes.
Evaluation:
I think this is a great book to teach many things. I think this book would be a great story to teach about the history of America, and to not make it so gloomy that everyone is sad at the end. This book shows some of the ugliness of the early-mid 1900s, but has an overall lighter mood/tone. I also think it is just a great book to teach moral lessons and how to overcome things like oppression and even bullying, because it shows that you never quite know what someone else comes from and what they had to do to get what they have. 

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