If the Shoe Fits…

1. If the Shoe Fits… By Gary Soto Terry Widener, Illustrator

2. Main Characters: Rigo, mom, Uncle Celso • Eight year Rigo doesn't like being the youngest brother. He always has to wear his big brothers' hand-me-downs. By the time he receives his clothes, they are all faded and But Rigo's luck changes on his birthday when his mom gives him a pair of shoes. He loves them for their shine and style, but most of all he loves them • because they are brand-new. After he outgrows the shoes, and trades them to his uncle for old Mexican centavos, Rigo learns that some hand-me-downs are better than brand-new.

3. On his ninth birthday, his mother buys him a pair of brand-new shoes. Rigo loves his new loafers because they are new. He inserts nickels in the slots.

4. He proudly strides down the street, grinning proudly at his shoes. He likes how the nickels glinted in the sunlight. A neighborhood bully Angel sneaked up from behind him and yelled “Hey, you’re not rich! How come you have nickels in your shoes?”

5. Rigo yelled back, “It’s the style!” Angel demanded the nickels from his shoes and snapped them out.

6. Rigo went home and threw his shoes into the closet. At the end of the summer he was invited to Kristie Hernandez’s birthday party. It was the first time he had been invited to a girl’s birthday party.

7. On the day of the party he tried on his shoes. They were too small! He had outgrown them! His feet were scrunched! He discovered that walking backward didn’t bother his feet. So he walked backward all the way to the party.

8. He invented an excuse at the party to take them off. “To play soccer!” After the party he told his family how much fun he had had. His Uncle Celso surprised him when he told him that next year he could have a birthday party because he had gotten a new job- being a waiter.

9. Uncle Celso will need shoes for the job. Rigo gaves him his shoes. Uncle Celso didn’t mind if they were hand-me-downs. They were brand new shoes. He traded Rigo two old Mexican coins. Rigo decides to put them into his next pair of loafers no matter what anyone like Angel said. Rigo learns that some hand-me-downs are better than brand-new.

10. Biography • Soto, G. If the Shoe Fits • http://books.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=if+the+shoe+fits&box=If%20the%20Shoe&pos=0 • www.garysoto.com/