By Keith Calabrese
Lena is ready for the first day of kindergarten, but her shoes are nervous, and her dad helps her talk them into being brave.
Lena is all set for her first day of kindergarten, except her left shoe is having serious second thoughts. Her shoes, it turns out, are nervous. They don't want to go. Rather than argue, Lena's dad plays along, and together they coax the shoes through it, reminding them of the fun waiting on the other side, promising her beloved headband will be right there too. It's a sly, loving way of letting Lena hand her own jitters to her shoes and then find, step by step, that her feet can carry her through the door after all.
Your child can't quite say 'I'm scared' but can absolutely tell you their shoes are, and this is the book for them. By moving the nerves onto the shoes, it hands a young child a safe, funny distance from their own worry, close enough to recognize, far enough to laugh at. And Lena's dad models the exact thing a nervous child needs: he doesn't dismiss the fear or force the feet forward, he gently talks the worry through until it's small enough to walk on. It's warm, it's clever, and it turns the hardest part of a big day into a game two people play together.