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Indian Shoes Kindle Edition
The beloved chapter book by New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Leitich Smith about the love and adventures shared by a Cherokee-Seminole boy and his Grampa now has brand-new illustrations! A perfect pick for new readers.
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 teamed up to pet sit for the whole block during a holiday blizzard!
Award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith writes with wit and candor about a boy and his grandfather, sharing all their love, joy, and humor.
In partnership with We Need Diverse Books
- Reading age1 - 12 years
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade levelPreschool - 6
- Lexile measure820L
- PublisherHeartdrum
- Publication dateSeptember 29, 2020
- ISBN-13978-0064421485
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Sean George, St. Charles Parish Library, Luling, LA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"The stories' strength lies in their powerful, poignant evocation of a cross-generational bond and in the description of the simple pleasures two charming characters enjoy."--ALA Booklist
"A very pleasing first-chapter book from its funny and tender opening salvo to its heartwarming closer."--Kirkus Reviews
"This book ably springs Ray Halfmoon free from the paint-and-feathers representations of American Indians."--Chicago Sunday Tribune
"Shoes is a good book for any elementary-aged reluctant reader, and a necessity for indigenous children everywhere."--School Library Journal
"This is a book so permeated with affection that many readers will just bask in the warmth."--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
From the Author
The voices of the characters and narrator, their patterns and rhythms, come directly from my relations in Oklahoma. Grandpa Halfmoon and Ray live in Chicago, but Grandpa is originally from rural Oklahoma and the duo visits family there in the last tale. Ray's voice has a bit more of a Windy City clip to it, but he's still influenced by the elder raising him, even in that way.
From the Inside Flap
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.
This collection of interrelated stories is heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny. Cynthia Leitich Smith 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.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's BooksFrom the Back Cover
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.
This collection of interrelated stories is heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny. Cynthia Leitich Smith 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.
About the Author
Cynthia Leitich Smith is the bestselling, acclaimed author of books for all ages, including Rain Is Not My Indian Name, Indian Shoes, Jingle Dancer, and Hearts Unbroken, which won the American Indian Youth Literature Award; she is also the anthologist of Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids. Most recently, she was named the 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate. Cynthia is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books, and serves as the Katherine Paterson Inaugural Endowed Chair on the faculty of the MFA program in writing for children and young adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Austin, Texas. You can visit Cynthia online at cynthialeitichsmith.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Ray and Grampa Halfmoon traipsed down the cracked sidewalk of a steel and stone city. Ray tracked Grampa's steps, danced to the rat-a-tat-a-clang of a trash-can band, and skipped beneath the ruffling branches.
"Let's duck in here," Grampa Halfmoon began, "and say Morning.'"
When the wind whistled into Murphy Family Antiques, Ray and Grampa whistled in with it. At the welcome mat, Grampa said "Morning" to Junior Murphy. Ray retied his neon orange shoelaces and took a look around the store.
The shop brimmed with treasures: an autographed baseball . . . a Chinese lantern . . . ostrich feathers . . . a basket of antique buttons on a pedestal . . . a tabletop held up by a real elephant leg . . . a moose head mounted high on a wall.
Where are the coats that matched the old buttons? Ray wondered. What happened to the rest of the elephant? Who took the body of the moose glaring down?
Grampa asked, "Do you see that?"
A pair of men's moccasins waited in a glass box on a pedestal. The card read: Seminole Moccasins, $50 Or Best Offer.
Grampa Halfmoon told Ray, "These put me in the mind of bein' back home."
For a long moment, they both looked at the moccasins. But Ray's mind was mostly on their afternoon plans, and his gaze wandered to the autographed baseball.
"We'd best get a move on," Grampa said, "to today's Cubs game."
Grampa and Ray left the shop with matching grins. They rode the rattling elevated train to Wrigley Field and watched the Cubs take on the St. Louis Cardinals.
From the first inning on, Grampa Halfmoon told old-time Cherokee, Seminole, and family stories. "Every once in a great while, my gramps used to wear moccasins," Grampa said, "instead of his cowboy boots." Grampa paused a moment to study the Cubs' scoreboard. "He used to pitch to me and my cousins, too, and Gramps usually struck us out. Then he'd jump in the lake to cool down afterward, just like us kids. The lakes back home in Oklahoma...those are the prettiest lakes I've ever seen."
Ray frowned, thinking it over. Not far away, Lake Michigan lapped against the shores of Chicago, a fierce blue blanket alongside the park. It was a pretty lake, Ray decided. A lot bigger than the lakes in Oklahoma. More sailboats.
After the seventh-inning stretch, Ray and Grampa Halfmoon ordered hot dogs.
"Now, these Chicago hot dogs," Grampa said, "they're dandy, but every now and then I get a hankering for some of that crackle-fried bacon your Aunt Wilhelmina likes to make. You know, that woman fries everything she cooks. I saw her fry a whole turkey once for Christmas, and it was sure enough some big bird."
Ray bit into his hot dog. He knew all about Aunt Wilhelmina's cooking. Ray and Grampa drove their pickup down to visit her and Uncle Leonard in Oklahoma once or twice a year. What he didn't know was why Grampa Halfmoon was thinking so hard today about Aunt Wilhelmina's crackle-fried bacon.
When the wind carried a home-run baseball into the stands, Ray almost caught it.
Cheers filled the air, but Grampa Halfmoon didn't make much of a fuss. He was homesick, Ray realized.
Ray wiggled his toes inside the hightops with the neon orange shoelaces. He couldn't afford a bus ticket to Oklahoma, but he had an idea. Ray thought about it during the last two innings of the game and while riding on the rattling elevated train all the way back to the stop nearest his redbrick bungalow.
Meanwhile Grampa Halfmoon talked about this wild-haired mutt he'd had when he was a kid and how he'd named it Catastrophe. Grampa talked about Ray's parents, who were killed by a tornado back when Ray was just a babe. And Grampa talked about how he used to take Ray's daddy fishing by starlight.
At bedtime the wind breathed against the stained-glass pane in Ray's bedroom window. He dumped jangling money -- twenty-eight dollars and sixty-seven cents -- out of his jar and onto his woolly blanket.
It was the most money Ray had ever owned at one time, but it wasn't enough.
Or was it? The sign had said "$50 or Best Offer." Maybe the best offer would be a little less than thirty bucks. Maybe the best offer would come from Ray.
On Monday after school, Ray marched down the cracked sidewalk. He held tight to his money jar, danced to the rat-a-tat-a-clang of a trash-can band, and skipped beneath the ruffling branches.
When the wind blew into Murphy Family Antiques again, Ray blew in again with it. At the welcome mat, he retied his neon orange shoelaces and said "Afternoon" to Junior Murphy. Then Ray breezed by the table with the elephant leg and the basket full of antique buttons. He paused behind a lady who was carrying a library book.
The lady seemed interested in the moccasins. "Do you know if these are real?" she asked. "Native American worn and Native American made?"
"I could double-check," Junior Murphy answered, "but it might take a while."
"I don't have a while to wait," the lady replied. "And I don't walk by this way too often." She hugged the library book a little tighter. "I'll tell you what. I could give you thirty dollars for them now, but that's all my budget will allow."
Ray shook his head at the moose. Thirty dollars topped his best bid.
Just then the wind rushed in. The door sounded ka-bam! Ostrich feathers fluttered. A Chinese lantern whirled to catch on the moose's antlers. The autographed baseball splashed into the button basket, toppling the pedestal. Buttons whizzed everywhere!
Ray thought, This is my last chance. "I'll give twenty-eight dollars and sixty-seven cents for the moccasins," he told Junior Murphy, "and I'll pick up every last button, too..."
Product details
- ASIN : B088FSL5RC
- Publisher : Heartdrum; Illustrated edition (September 29, 2020)
- Publication date : September 29, 2020
- Language : English
- File size : 8650 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 86 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #909,995 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee) is a NYTimes bestseller, the 2024 Southern Mississippi Medallion Winner, and the 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate. Reading Rockets named her one of 100 Children’s Authors and Illustrators Everyone Should Know. Her titles include HEARTS UNBROKEN, winner of an American Indian Youth Literature Award; the anthology ANCESTOR APPROVED, which was an ALA Notable Book and winner of the Reading of the West Book Award; an Indigenous PETER PAN retelling titled SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA, which received six starred reviews; and the YA ghost mystery HARVEST HOUSE, which Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called “a spine-tingling, edge-of-the-seat chiller.” Her 2024 middle grade releases are MISSION ONE: THE VICE PRINCIPAL PROBLEM (BLUE STARS #1), a Junior Library Guild selection, also by Kekla Magoon and Molly Murakami, and a road-trip novel titled ON A WING AND A TEAR. Cynthia is also the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint of HarperCollins.
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These short stories are written for younger readers who like rhythms and repetition in what they read. The book is divided into episodes about the lives of Ray and his Grampa Halfmoon. It shows their love for each other, and how they try to do things to help each other. Ray learns the lesson of sticking with things that he starts. And both he and Grampa have to figure out how to help the animals they're taking care of during the Christmas holidays when the electricity goes out. Eventually, Ray learns what the biggest thing in life is --- even bigger than the biggest bass in the lake.
--- Reviewed by Tamara Penny
The six tales of this book make it an "easy read" as well. As a teacher and a school librarian, I recommend this book to my student. It also makes a great gift from a grandfather.