ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
PICTURE BOOKS
Fogliano, Julie

Because of a Shoe

40 pp. | Knopf | February, 2026 | Trade ISBN 9780593707401 $19.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780593707425 $6.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Marla Frazee. Fogliano's stream-of-consciousness, one-continuous-sentence text details a parent's frustration with a recalcitrant child -- but also their mutual unconditional love. The focus shifts smoothly and expertly from the child's actions (refusing to put on a shoe, screaming, and flopping onto the floor) to the parent's loss of patience (making their "maddest face" and "being loud and yelling") to the eventual recovery of their true selves ("we are still us / (funny sweet us) / and you still love me / and i still love you"). It's Frazee's art -- in Prismacolor pencil and vinyl paint -- that makes the text into a story. She brings us two distinct characters in a warm-hued though minimalistic living-room setting, which then morphs into a dark, mostly monochromatic fantasy world where the furniture is subsumed by an ocean wave in which a shoe-seeking shark circles, a shoe is thrown off a cliff, and the depths of a desolate dump must be explored. Frazee gradually re-introduces color on the spread where the emotional storm begins to pass, to both participants' evident relief. Next comes the addition of full-color, detailed, cheerful backgrounds and the clever reveal of the occasion for which donning the shoe had been necessary in the first place: a birthday party with an inflatable bouncy house (no shoes allowed!). Throughout, both text and art portray the situation with authenticity and understanding -- and welcome flashes of humor.
Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2026

RELATED 

PICTURE BOOKS

How to Spot a Mermaid
by Yolen, Jane
PICTURE BOOKS

A Book of Maps for You
by Heuer, Lourdes
PICTURE BOOKS

Rose Weaves a Garden
by Kheiriyeh, Rashin
PICTURE BOOKS

Seven
by Nickel, Sandra
PICTURE BOOKS

Sakina and the Uninvited Guests
by Marwan, Zahra
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?