Frog Boots

PreS-Gr 2–Dylan desperately wants a pair of shimmery purple rain boots, decorated with multicolored poison-dart frogs. Despite his mother’s hinted-at reservations about his color of choice, she acquiesces, and the little boy excitedly “clomp-tromped from the store feeling cool and smart. Taller, even.” However, when Dylan proudly wears his new boots to school, his classmates are not impressed: “Ms. Kory, that boy’s wearing girl boots.” Dylan’s emotions are clearly conveyed in Heinsz’s watercolor cartoon illustrations, from confident exuberance to uncomfortable, shrinking embarrassment. After banishing his favorite footwear to the back of the closet, the child has second thoughts and eventually shakes off the shackles of gender stereotypes. Back at school, sporting his “feel-so-right boots. His I-don’t-care-if-they’re-purple-boots,” Dylan handles his detractors with stylish aplomb.