Indian Shoes

This collection of interrelated stories is heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny. Cynthia Leitich Smith, acclaimed author of Rain Is Not My Indian Name, writes with wit and candor about what it's like to grow up as a Seminole-Cherokee boy who is just as happy pounding the pavement in windy Chicago as rowing on a take in rural Oklahoma. This chapter book [or this series] is perfect for growing readers in first or second grade.

What do Indian shoes look like, anyway? Like beautiful beaded moccasins...or hightops with bright orange shoelaces?

Ray Halfmoon prefers hightops, but he gladly trades them for a nice pair of moccasins for his Grampa. After all, it's Grampa Halfmoon who's always there to help Ray get in and out of scrapes—like the time they are forced to get creative after a homemade haircut makes Ray's head look like a lawn-mowing accident.

Shoes is a good book for any elementary-aged reluctant reader, and a necessity for indigenous children everywhere.”—School Library Journal