Go Go and the Silver Shoes by Jane Godwin illustrated by Anna Walker

When you have new clothes it is fun to wear them straight away and to wear them everywhere. Go Go has to put up with hand-me-down clothes but she is allowed to have new shoes. She goes shopping with her mum and sees the perfect pair of silver sneakers. "Mum bought them a bit big, so they would last longer."

Go Go wears the shoes everywhere including on an adventure to the creek with her brothers. Astute readers will have already guessed there will be a disaster. One shoe is lost. Go Go says she doesn't care and she continues to wear her one silver shoe on her left foot and a different shoe on her right foot. She bravely copes with the teasing of her classmates. Then a new girl arrives in her class. Ellie is fascinated by Go Go's silver shoe. After school the pair head over to Ellie's house and, well as you have guessed the pair of shoes are back together but what will happen now?

Here are a set of excellent teaching notes. Reading these I discovered Jane Godwin was inspired to write this book because

• she saw a lone shoe abandoned near a creek
• she heard the name Go Go (short for Marigold) and loved it
• she is interest in the idea of fate

There are so many great Picture books for your youngest students. written about shoes. My friend at Kinderbookswitheverything has an excellent collection on her blog. Make sure you include some fairy tales too.

Go Go and the Silver shoes is a 2019 CBCA Notable book (Picture book of Year). With an older class I would pair Go Go and the Silver shoes with Four feet Two Sandals and Those Shoes. There are some other text ideas here.

Looking for ideas connected with this book I discovered this wonderful site for shoe fans - The Virtual Shoe Museum. You can select material, type, colour, designer and more and see a huge array of wild shoes. Go Go and the Silver Shoes could be an inspiration for an art activity designing and decorating shoes.

From its sparkly cover to its stunning endpages, this is a unique story that had me enthralled to the end. Barbara Braxton The Bottom Shelf