What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe?: A Green Activity Book about Reuse » (First Edition)

ANNA ALTER has written and illustrated several children’s book, including Estelle and Lucy. She is also the illustrator of The Purple Ribbon. Anna studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, worked as a preschool teacher for several years, and now teaches children’s book illustration at Montserrat College of Art. She lives in Boston.

What can Ruby do with her old red shoe? Use it as a planter for pansies! In this “green” craft book, children can appreciate that recycling is a part of everyday life, and with a little creativity, exciting projects are only a few steps away. Turn a worn flip-flop into an art stamp, a ripped shower curtain into an apron, and an old T-shirt into a pillow. These activities are just a few of the many crafts to be explored.

With easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions, this interactive book will challenge kids to come up with clever recycling ideas of their own.

Children's Literature

This kid-friendly how-to guide to reuse offers a dozen specific ways to recycle or reuse such common items as one flip-flop, empty berry baskets, an old calendar and, of course, the eponymous red shoe. Each spread briefly recounts how a young animal has reduced a familiar item to trash. It then provides a step-by-step guide about how to transform the object instead of throwing it away. Thus Ruby's single red dancing shoe becomes a small flowerpot filled with pansies. The directions are given in clear series of steps, and the illustrations make it easy to see what exactly how to carry out each project. One of the special attractions of this book is that it focuses on the kinds of things that children across the socioeconomic spectrum are likely to have to throw away. The simple stories that frame each project are playful but will help young readers visualize why the items, ready for the wastebasket, can be transformed into useful or attractive objects. Reviewer: Mary Hynes-Berry