Boo's Shoes
Sybrina Durant, Pumudi Gardiyawasam
How attractive is the story? Excellent (5/5)
How professional is the book’s appearance? Excellent (5/5)
What are my impressions of the overall story? Good (4/5)
How appropriate is this book for children? Excellent (5/5)
Boo the Bunny does not want to learn to tie shoes. Why should he bother, when his shoes don’t have laces? When Farah Fox buys him new shoes, she teaches him that tying shoes isn’t as scary as he might have thought.
Teaching children to tie their shoes is never easy. With so many laceless shoes out there, three of my children (including an eleven-year-old with autism) have yet to master this skill. So the four of us sat down to read this book together.
I selected this book because I found the cover and blurb very attractive. The layout and artwork were very professional, as was the grammar and editing.
The story is in two parts: the first part shows the story of Boo resisting and eventually learning to tie his shoe while the second part provides a step-by-step instruction for young children. I have to say, I was a little disappointed. First, I would have liked the instructions to have been integrated into the story. I wanted to see Fox showing Bunny each step. I wanted to see Bunny getting frustrated by how difficult it is. (My four-year-old threw her shoe across the room on the first try.)
My second disappointment was the step-by-step instruction. While informative, it was very wordy and difficult to read. I found myself summarizing the step for my children instead of reading the words. While this book admits to being designed to be read with a parent, I was hoping it was something my independent readers would be able to read alone. However, due to the complexity of the instructions, I did not really feel this was the case.
I also found this story difficult to read. At times, especially when Farah Fox was speaking, it felt like the story wanted to rhyme. However, most of the time it didn’t. It’s not that I believe all picture books should have rhyme, but this book seemed to have trouble committing one way or the other and that made it difficult to read aloud.
That said, I found the beginning of the story engaging and the characters entertaining.
My thanks to the author and AuthorsXP for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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