Shoe Town - Softcover

Janet Stevens; Susan Stevens Crummel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0152019944 ISBN 13: 9780152019945

Publisher: Green Light Readers, 1999

Synopsis

Little mama mouse dreams of a hot bath and a long nap. Her babies have grown up and moved away from their snug shoe-home. Mama imagines settling into a quiet life, until Tortoise, Hare, and other storybook strangers turn up in search of a home. Soon Mama has a busy life--and lots of new friends--in glorious Shoe Town. Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel’s toe-tapping rhymed text in tandem with Janet Stevens’s soleful illustrations gives the notion of one mama’s “empty nest” a hilarious kick.

About this title

About the Author

Janet Stevens is the author and illustrator of many beloved picture books, including Tops & Bottoms, a Caldecott Honor Book. With her sister and co-author, Susan Stevens Crummel, she created the acclaimed best-sellers The Great Fuzz Frenzy, Help Me, Mr. Mutt!, The Little Red Pen and more. She is also the illustrator of the Epossumondas books, written by renowned storyteller Coleen Salley. Janet Stevens lives in Colorado. For more information, visit www.janetstevens.com.

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SUSAN STEVENS CRUMMEL has collaborated with Janet Stevens, her sister, on several picture books, including the The Little Red Pen; Help Me, Mr. Mutt!, Texas Bluebonnet winner Cook-a-Doodle-Doo!; and the Texas Bluebonnet nominee And The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon. A former teacher, she now writes children's books and makes author appearances at schools full-time. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 2-These three easy-readers combine brightly colored illustrations with short simple stories. Readability is determined using the Reading Recovery model, and each book features a meet-the-author section. In Sometimes, an alligator engages in all sorts of activities, such as cooking, ice fishing, and playing the banjo. The text is repetitive: "Sometimes I am happy. Sometimes I am sad." The reptile has lots of expression, and even nonreaders could recite/read this story after hearing it once or twice. Catch Me features a T-rex that frightens all of the other dinosaurs, except for one, who turns out to be his loving grandchild. The illustrations, done in markers, reflect Most's typical flat style. Written in rhyming couplets, Shoe Town is the best of the bunch. After her children move out, a mother mouse just wants to relax in her shoe home. Various nursery-rhyme characters ask to move in, but she insists they get their own shoes. The cow jumping over the moon keeps a count of the population of "Shoe Town" as it grows. Stevens's illustrations are irresistible, and the tale works well as a read-aloud or read-alone.
Sharon R. Pearce, formerly at San Antonio Public Library, TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 1. Mama Mouse just wants to fill her empty nest (a purple shoe) with water and take a nice, hot bath. But there's barely a trickle from the garden hose before fairy-tale friends of various sorts (the hare and the tortoise, etc.) show up wanting to share her space. Janet Stevens' illustrations aren't nearly as polished as her usual pictures, and the rhyming text doesn't quite scan. That's somewhat balanced, however, by the appealing idea of this Green Light Reader. Stephanie Zvirin

Edition details

• Publisher: Green Light Readers
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152019944
• ISBN 13: 9780152019945
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 24