Fidgety Feet? Lena's Shoes Are Nervous: A First-Day of School Dilemma by Keith Calabrese

Lena thought she was ready for the first day of kindergarten. Her dad thought so, too. She has her blue dress hanging on the doorknob. Her striped pink socks are laid out, and her green-flowered headband is at the ready. But...

LENA'S SHOES ARE NERVOUS.

Dad doesn't know what to do about nervous shoes. He suggests Lena have a serious talk with her footware.

WE CAN'T DO THAT," LENA SAYS SENSIBLY.

"THEY'RE SHOES."

Dad asks how her other clothes are feeling. Lena's socks share the mood of her shoes, she says, but her blue dress is an extrovert who can't wait to get to school.

Maybe her green headband can persuade her yellow shoes to go along with the rest of them. Lena puts on her blue dress and sits down for a tete a tete with her headband and her shoes.

THE SHOES SAY THEY'D RATHER NOT GO.

The headband is empathetic, but reminds the shoes that they've stepped bravely into a lot of strange situations that turned out better than expected.

"OFTEN THE BEST THINGS HAPPEN WHEN WE'RE NERVOUS."

The yellow shoes are wavering, and Lena finally cinches the sale by suggesting that if the shoes don't come through, she may have to wear her bedroom slippers to school....

The first steps are the hardest when it comes to first-day jitters, in Keith Calabrese's Lena's Shoes Are Nervous: A First-Day-of-School Dilemma (Atheneum Books, 2018). Author Calabrese artfully documents a case of projection, as Lena projects her own first-day fears on her shoes. Dad plays along humorously and Lena and her reluctant feet work it out in this insightful and funny first-day-of-preschool tale. Clever conversation and illustrative changes in perspective offer humor and warmth, and Juana Medina's colorful flat black-line illustrations stand out against the black-and-white background of the steps to school that follow as Lena begins her journey through life's many intimidating moments.