Indian Shoes

By Cynthia Leitich Smith

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

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9780063049871

Cynthia Leitich Smith

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.

Book preview

Reviews for Indian Shoes

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So glad this is updated and back in print! Ray lives with his Grampa Halfmoon in Chicago. Not a lot of money, but they are happy together and have small adventures. Book addresses: Native people in modern life (still here!), poverty, living with a grandparent after the death of parents, day-to-day life in a family that is full of love. It's the wonderful humor that I love the most about this book -- the stories are small moments -- like the funniest, most wonderful memories you have with someone dear.

[gjchauvin504 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Indian Shoes is a great children's book in that it is simple to read and understand as well as gives a great depiction of what the life is like for the modern Native American. What I really liked was that the book was divided in to several chapters that end up being short stories that all connect to each other. This book was different from many others that usually talk about Native Americans. Instead of being a history or cultural lesson, the book follows a young boy and his grandfather. It talks about everyday situations that any young person could be involved with/relate to such as baseball games, family visits, etc. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a young child. This is a great start for a young child to read about Native Americans and to break the current stereotypes of what people assume Native Americans to be. It's great practice for reading in general as well as something not usually taught, especially at such a young age. I would not recommend this book for someone above the elementary age level since the book may be too easy of read. However, I would recommend this book if you are doing research on children's literature and want to include this one, specifically a text centering around Native Americans. I would not necessarily recommend this a leisure read for older kids/students simply because it is specifically designed for a younger audience so it would be less of a challenge for them to read and also it is not as informative as a more advanced text would be as to the actual history and culture.

[carebeargirlie5187 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book includes six short stories about the relationship between a Native American boy and his grandfather.This book is ok. The story lines are not very unique but ae touching family tales.In a classroom it would be easy to fill in short amounts of free time with one of these short stories.