The Red Shoes

Originally published in Canada, this picture book offers more than first might be expected, and certainly not the Andersen tale of the same name.

It is the story of a small girl taken by her mother to buy new shoes. Among the shelves of boring, dull, colourless lace-ups she spots a pair of red shoes and sets her heart on them. Luckily they fit the best, and her mother relents and buys them.

Set in the 1960s, the illustrations are filled with detail of the clothes, streets and cars of the time, in muted shades from which the red shoes stand out. The text is sparse but intensely imaginative and poetic, offering opportunities for extending young readers’ use of language.