Birdie's Big-Girl Shoes

by Sujean Rim, Libby Koponen (Text by)

Overview

Birdie carefully slipped her little toes into one shoe,
then slid into the other.

She looked at herself in the mirror...
and gasped.

Birdie can't wait to be just like her mom. She loves wearing jewelry, spritzing perfume bottles, and dressing up in front of the mirror. But more than anything, Birdie fantasizes about her mother's fancy high-heels. She can't wait to try them on and do all the things she likes to do wearing beautiful "big-girl shoes."

Little girls will love walking with Birdie as she spends a day in her mother's shoes, but in the end they may find that, like Birdie, they like their "barefoot shoes" best of all.

With playful watercolors and clever textured cut-paper designs, this precious picture book will speak to every little girl who longs to be a "big-girl".

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316072151
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Series:	Birdie Series
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Sujean Rim is best known for her signature watercolor designs on the popular DailyCandy Web site. Originally a shoe and accessory designer, Sujean has been commissioned by clients including Tiffany & Co., Barneys, Elle Decor, and Target. She illustrated the DAILY CANDY A to Z: Insider's Guide to the Sweet Life and The Daily Candy Lexicon book, and she has designed a number of book covers. She lives with her husband in New York. Visit her online at www.sujeanrim.com.

Editorial Reviews

Is there a little girl anywhere in America who does not yearn just a bit, like Birdie, to wear her mother's shoes? And Birdie's mother has an incredible collection, all lovingly described by Birdie, who insists she is ready to wear them. Birdie pictures all the great things she could do in high heels. Promising to be careful, she begs to wear a pair, ". . . just for a little while." They make her feel like a movie star. But they do not work the way she imagined. Kicking them off, she finds that she does much better barefoot. She decides she is not ready for big girl shoes yet; "…she liked her beautiful barefoot shoes most of all." Solid color pages are backdrops for the action with no scenery needed, just shoes of all kinds and our heroine with few props. Watercolors are applied to sketches with vigor, while the clothes and shoes that keep our attention are created with wildly patterned collage. The end pages offer a display of scores of fancy footwear and boxes. Large type that changes color and shape adds to the narrative humor. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

PreS—Doe-eyed Birdie, a budding five-year-old fashionista, is her ultra-stylish mother's eager wardrobe assistant, selecting jewelry, sunglasses, perfume, and shoes for Mom to wear each morning. When her mother finally grants Birdie permission to try on her closet full of "big-girl shoes," Birdie is thrilled. But she soon discovers that feeling glamorous in Mom's stilettos doesn't combine well with dancing or turning cartwheels, concluding that her "beautiful barefoot shoes" are still the best choice for her. (Practical girl, that Birdie!) The bold, stylized watercolor and collage illustrations, paired with spare, simple text, are set against ample white space and burst with bright, attractive textile patterns. A light confection for the preschool dress-up set.—Kathleen Finn, St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski, VT

School Library Journal

The sophistication (and agony) of high heels receives a tongue-in-cheek treatment when young Birdie realizes feminine fashion comes with a painful price. Emulation is the sincerest form of flattery when Birdie begs to dress up in her mother's swank shoes. The child's successful plea leads to unintended consequences: Playing is nearly impossible when tottering in towering pumps. Accordingly, a blistered Birdie chooses barefoot comfort over style. Text and art successfully merge throughout, mom's extensive shoe collection of "crocodile pumps and her summer peep-toes and all her strappy sandals" dominating each spread. Varying fonts enhance the light narrative. Rim's bold, retro-styled watercolor collages maintain focus on the disproportionate characters, and textured accents provide spunk. It's too bad mom won't follow her daughter's lead (she wears stilettos even when playing tea party) but the family dynamics are spot-on. Kick back and relax for some fashionable fun. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews

04/27/2015
Rim, whose illustrations accessorize the Web site DailyCandy, makes her authorial debut with a story of a girl who covets the fabulous high-heeled footwear of her stylish (and strikingly waifish) mother. When her mother finally relents and allows her daughter to play dress up with the contents of her shoe closet (that's right, a la Sex and the City, mom has a closet just for shoes), Birdie learns the answer to the question, "What price beauty?" For while the shoes represent that perfect, drool-worthy combination of improbable geometry and sublime superfluity, wearing them isn't child's play. "iding was impossible with pointy Mary Jane sticking out," Birdie discovers, and when it comes to turning cartwheels, "landing sure was tricky in sky-high stilettos." Rim's gossamer watercolors exude a breezy élan and they pop with luscious color—the pinks are especially juicy. The exaggerated scenes of Birdie trying on her mother's shoes are priceless (in one, she balances inside one shoe as if on a seesaw), and the target audience will identify both with Birdie's desire to play grownup and her epiphany that barefoot is better. Ages 3—6. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly