By Susan Lynn Meyer; Illustrated by Eric Velasquez
This story is about a young girl, Ella Mae, in the South during the time of segregation. All she had for shoes was her brother's hand me downs so her mother took her to Mr Johnson's shoe shop where she was told she could not try on the shoes there because of her color. Ella Mae was horrified and her and her friend, Charlotte decide to take old shoes and work endlessly to make them look like new and sell them to the public and let anyone try them on!
This story is classified as Historical fiction because it is a made up story but is set in a time period that actually took place in real life. The setting of this story is during the Civil War era where segregation was a real issue.
One activity I would have in my classroom would be to separate the children by eye color and treat each group differently and see how they feel being treated differently because of their eye color. Another activity I would have is have each child come up with what kind of shoes they would pick out at the shoe shop and describe what they look like and why they would pick those shoes.
Reader Response Questions
How would you feel if you were not allowed to try on the new shoes?
Do you believe that there is still any segregation in today's world?
Would you not want to be friends with someone because they are different than you?
This story has a connection to the core value of Respect because it shows the young girls sticking up for what they believe in and shows you an outlook on what they are feeling which gives you a great perspective on how black people felt during this time period. It gives you a feeling of respect towards them because of everything they have been through.
I really thought this book shows a great outlook on what segregation was like during the Civil War. It shows that children were deeply impacted by this and gives the children of today's world what those children had to go through and how much has changed since then.
Susan Lynn Meyer grew up in Baltimore and became a writer after she got her degree at John Hopkins and is now an English Professor at Wellesley College outside of Boston. She has 3 other books which include; The Skating with the Statue of Liberty, Black Radishes, and Matthew and Tall Rabbit Go Camping.
This story is classified as Historical fiction because it is a made up story but is set in a time period that actually took place in real life. The setting of this story is during the Civil War era where segregation was a real issue.
One activity I would have in my classroom would be to separate the children by eye color and treat each group differently and see how they feel being treated differently because of their eye color. Another activity I would have is have each child come up with what kind of shoes they would pick out at the shoe shop and describe what they look like and why they would pick those shoes.
Reader Response Questions
How would you feel if you were not allowed to try on the new shoes?
Do you believe that there is still any segregation in today's world?
Would you not want to be friends with someone because they are different than you?
This story has a connection to the core value of Respect because it shows the young girls sticking up for what they believe in and shows you an outlook on what they are feeling which gives you a great perspective on how black people felt during this time period. It gives you a feeling of respect towards them because of everything they have been through.
I really thought this book shows a great outlook on what segregation was like during the Civil War. It shows that children were deeply impacted by this and gives the children of today's world what those children had to go through and how much has changed since then.
Susan Lynn Meyer grew up in Baltimore and became a writer after she got her degree at John Hopkins and is now an English Professor at Wellesley College outside of Boston. She has 3 other books which include; The Skating with the Statue of Liberty, Black Radishes, and Matthew and Tall Rabbit Go Camping.
Susan Lynn Meyer. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2016, from http://susanlynnmeyer.com/books/
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