The overall theme of the book is to love what you love and not let the opinions of others change your mind. Both girls let the other girl's opinion of their boots make them feel bad until they sit and talk and make clear their full, true opinion of the situation and they are able to resume their friendship and be happy. It would be good to help teach kids about peer pressure. The illustrations in the book are lovely. The emotional expressions are portrayed with delicate subtlety that is delightful. They could definitely be used in a reading time with additional questions to draw out more critical thinking about the topic of peer pressure.

12 copies

Jamaica doesn't have any boots so she has to wear her brothers old boots and she hates them. Jamaica saw Brianna at the bus stop and thought how pretty her pink boots were. Brianna yelled that she was wearing boy boots which made her feel worse. There was a hole in the boot that Jamaica made worse at school because she wanted new ones. So they went to the shoe store and Jamaica picked out a pair of real cowboy boots that she loved. She was excited to show off her boots the next day but Brianna wasn't happy for her so Jamacia told her that she saw pink boots like Brianna's at the store but didn't get them because they were ugly. They ended up talking it out when they got to school and found out that they were both wearing hammy down boots.
This story did a great job at showing that you never know what someone else is going through. The girls apologized to each other and worked everything out by talking and telling each other the truth. I loved the illustrations in this book. ( )

Like many other books by Juanita Havill, this book takes readers through a story about Jamaica. I really enjoy reading different books about one character, as I am able to see the development and growth she goes through. This particular book tells the story of Jamaica getting new boots, as she did not like wearing her brother's old ones. When her friend Brianna has pretty pink boots, Jamaica decides she cannot buy pink boots, as she feels that Brianna will think she is copying her. When the two talk about it, they find that it was in fact, the exact opposite. The two friends play and enjoy time together in their own cowboy and pink boots. In this book, Jamaica and Brianna were using hand me down boots, which I am no stranger to. I think they felt as if they couldn't have anything that was their own. This is a situation that many children are in everyday and many children can see themselves in this story. I would happily add this book to my classroom set! ( )

This book is about a girl who puts is upset about wearing unisex boots worried her peers will tease her about her boots. After she gets new boots she finds out her friend was worried she would also be teased because she was wearing hand me down boots. They bond over boots. ( )