TITLE: Tour around the world in a pair of shoes

AUTHOR: Zoi Karoutzou-Fragou

ILLUSTRATOR: Emmanouela Kakavia

PUBLISHING HOUSE: Ocelotos publishing, Athens, GREECE

ISBN: 978-960-564-308-9

LANGUAGE: Greek

keywords: migration, consumerism, Greece, Greek language, Syria

Ages: pre-school and elementary

An adventure around the globe experienced by a pair of shoes

This colorful children's book is kind of a journey around the globe. A pair of shoes

offered as a gift to a little girl named Popitsa are thrown away in the garbage, where

discovered by an immigrant boy, who passes it on to his sister... Real life can be cruel

as well as fascinating, so the shoes find themselves traveling either on foot or by

airplane or even by boat to several countries in Asia, Europe and America. They

change hands nine times: a typical magic number in Greek myths and fairytales,

which might explain the return of the shoes back to their first owner (Popitsa) in

Athens, Greece.

The story speaks of prosperity and poverty, of having a home and being homeless, of

the need of moving or even running and feeling safe and settled and belonging

somewhere. It' s a book about diversity and origin in a globalized world.

The illustration based on vintage maps gave me a scent of wanderlust and journey

and a feeling that traveling man has never stopped moving nor exploring.

When I read it to my little son (age of 4) it seemed to me as a great opportunity to

start talking about the meaning of reuse and recycling.

Use in the classroom:

 The book can trigger class activities on kindness, tolerance and migration.

 It can also be used as resource to the subjects of geography and economy or

environment protection and sustainable living (reuse and recycling).