New Shoes

A girl named Ella Mae goes to a shoe store, and there the man that owns the store turns toward her to help her, but then another person comes in who is a white person, so the owner goes to the other person first. When it was finally Ella Mae’s turn, she wasn’t allowed to try on the shoes, because she was black. She just had to buy the shoes and take them home, and it wasn’t fair. Then she figured out a way to make her own shoe shop. She worked really hard to collect old shoes and clean them, washing out the shoelaces and polishing the shoes. Then she set up shop in an old barn, with a sign selling the shoes for ten cents, plus an old pair of shoes. And she let everyone try on the shoes before they bought them.

I liked this book because she figured out a solution to her problem. She was creative and she worked hard, and even though people were mean to her, she found a way to treat people the right way. This book has a good message that you can find a way to do the right thing.