Lena's Shoes Are Nervous: A First-Day-Of-School Dilemma

by Keith Calabrese and Juana Medina

Lena is excited to be starting kindergarten. She’s picked out her favorite... read more

Lena is excited to be starting kindergarten. She’s picked out her favorite clothes to wear—blue dress, pink striped socks, green-flowered headband, yellow shoes—but her shoes are reluctant to go. When Lena’s dad suggests her dress (which is “very outgoing,” according to Lena) talk to her shoes, Lena informs him they don’t get along. Luckily Lena’s headband is friends with all her clothes. Between the headband’s encouragement, and Lena’s suggestion that she might have to wear her slippers if the shoes won’t come, the shoes—and Lena—find their courage. Brown-skinned Lena uses imagination and role-playing to work through first-day-of school nerves, while her supportive dad knows when to step in and when to get out of the way. A fresh, playful story perfectly matched by exuberant, digitally rendered illustrations that use both bright colors and black- and-white lines to wonderful effect. (Ages 3–7)

© Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2019

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