Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
As a red-haired child's feelings get big and bigger--"because of a shoe/ (a too-tight shoe/ a too-loose shoe)/ you are screaming/ and you don't want to be screaming"--smartly rhythmic verse from Fogliano (All the Beating Hearts) traces the ordeal's escalation in this compassionate picture book. An adult patiently attempts to defuse the situation, but as the child's response deepens, lively colored pencil and paint illustrations by Frazee (In Every Life) transform a yellow-toned living room into a darkly hatched, seemingly inescapable vortex where the child resolves to "live on the floor." Finally, the caretaker, too, succumbs to frustration. But at what seems like emotional bottom, the two pale-skinned figures catch their breath and rediscover that, no matter the circumstances, "you are still you/ (funny sweet you)/ and i am still me/ (funny sweet me)." The art's chaotic scribbles dissolve into domestic peace, and the sturm und drang seems like yesterday's news. Everyone has inexplicable moments when trivial triggers unleash frustration and chaos. But with levity and tenderness and an assuring "even when" refrain, the creators affirm that love persists through emotionally overwhelming moments, and that one can go back to putting one foot in front of another--shod or otherwise. Ages 2--5. Agent (for Fogliano and Frazee): Steven Malk, Writers House. (Feb.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
Fogliano's stream-of-consciousness, one-continuous-sentence text details a parent's frustration with a recalcitrant child -- but also their mutual unconditional love. The focus shifts smoothly and expertly from the child's actions (refusing to put on a shoe, screaming, and flopping onto the floor) to the parent's loss of patience (making their "maddest face" and "being loud and yelling") to the eventual recovery of their true selves ("we are still us / (funny sweet us) / and you still love me / and i still love you"). It's Frazee's art -- in Prismacolor pencil and vinyl paint -- that makes the text into a story. She brings us two distinct characters in a warm-hued though minimalistic living-room setting, which then morphs into a dark, mostly monochromatic fantasy world where the furniture is subsumed by an ocean wave in which a shoe-seeking shark circles, a shoe is thrown off a cliff, and the depths of a desolate dump must be explored. Frazee gradually re-introduces color on the spread where the emotional storm begins to pass, to both participants' evident relief. Next comes the addition of full-color, detailed, cheerful backgrounds and the clever reveal of the occasion for which donning the shoe had been necessary in the first place: a birthday party with an inflatable bouncy house (no shoes allowed!). Throughout, both text and art portray the situation with authenticity and understanding -- and welcome flashes of humor. Martha V. ParravanoJanuary/February 2026 p.58 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A toddler's recalcitrance inspires a parent's book-length retort. The smallest thing--having to put on shoes, say--can set off a youngster. In this outing, an adult responds to a toddler's footwear-related tantrum with one long, single-sentence spiel that is the book's only text. It begins, "Even when… // because of a shoe… / you are screaming / and you don't want to be screaming / but you just can't stop screaming…" Across pages, the caregiver describes the child's obstinacy, forecasting, among other things, a lifetime spent hating shoes ("You want all the shoes / to go to the bottom of the ocean / and get eaten by a shark"). The point, of course, is that even when the kid is screeching and the adult is "making my maddest face / and my eyes are my maddest eyes," parent and child still love each other. Fogliano's text, which could almost pass for a narrative poem, is hilarious, cathartic, and, finally, heartwarming--at least it will be for parents. The parent's full-throttle narration may confound some little ones, who will pick up cues from Frazee's emotionally attuned multimedia art, which is in color to start, largely grayscale when the parent is most gloom-and-doomiest, and in color again (whew!) when the two have made their peace. Both characters are pale-skinned redheads. A funny, wrenching affirmation of a parent's unconditional love.(Picture book. 2-5) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
