The Wrong Shoes: A Book About Money and Self-Esteem
Amelia likes books and libraries and asking people questions Either way we both like to dig and uncover and discover And actually we're both really good at both things It's just that when I'm inside too long I get antsy When Amelia's outside too long she gets itchy But we have fun no matter what And we learn a ton together Two years ago Amelia gave me a Fieldnotes journal to track what we learn I've gone through dozens since then Someday I'll go back and reread the ones I wrote when I was little They must be hilarious I've gotten much better at this Amelia says no matter where or what we're exploring the best way to learn stuff is by just writing it down I agree 8
Fieldnotes Entry 1 The Problem I picked the WRONG shoes I need new ones The Story Last year everybody loved Super Steppers So when I saw their new running shoes in my favorite colors Smashed pumpkin orange and storm sky gray 1 begged my mom to buy them for me She did They'd make me run faster than anybody in the neighborhood I'd be the hit of fifth grade For sure Come to find out Super Steppers are fourth grade shoes Larry Bondir made sure I knew this immediately When Larry saw me coming down the hallway he elbowed James and nodded in my direction James laughed Larry shook his head and called out to me Didnt know you were repeating the fourth grade Larry Said 9
When I asked what Larry was talking about James pointed down the hall toward the fourth graders See their shoes James said I stretched my neck and squinted Lots of Super Steppers just like mine Now Larry Said look at ours fourth grade flunky By now Sarah Peg and Margot were snickering around me too I looked at their shoes Ugh Not one of them wore Super Steppers They all had Jupiter Jumpers And I knew one thing for sure No matter how fast Iran in them No matter how great the colors looked together My Super Steppers were wrong THE WRONG SHOES 10
My face flushed I can never control my cheeks Yet another thing I get wrong Like a baby I AM a fourth grade flunky I guess Maybe one day I'll fit in with my classmates but clearly not now So what are the right shoes Those Jupiter Jumpers I need to get those shoes Mom disagrees Mom wont buy me new shoes She said something about her budget Whatever But Mom says she can help another way I didn't like the sound of it at first but then it got interesting Mom Says I need to investigate how to save up the money for the shoes myself Then I can buy them myself Hmmmm Observations I get 1 week for an allowance The Jupiter Jumpers cost 40 Pll be in sixth grade and the Loser of All Shoe Losers before I can afford that II
