Product Description

When relief workers bring used clothing to the refugee camp, everyone scrambles to grab whatever they can. Ten-year-old Lina is thrilled when she finds a sandal that fits her foot perfectly, until she sees that another girl has the matching shoe. But soon Lina and Feroza meet and decide that it is better to share the sandals than for each to wear only one.

As the girls go about their routines -- washing clothes in the river, waiting in long lines for water, and watching for their names to appear on the list to go to America -- the sandals remind them that friendship is what is most important.

Four Feet, Two Sandals was inspired by a refugee girl who asked the authors why there were no books about children like her. With warm colors and sensitive brush strokes, this book portrays the strength, courage, and hope of refugees around the world, whose daily existence is marked by uncertainty and fear.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58182 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 28 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780802852960
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Karen Lynn Williams has written several books about the difficult lives of children around the world, including Galimoto (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard), Tap-Tap (Clarion), and Circles of Hope (Eerdmans). Karen has lived in Haiti and Malawi, but now lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Khadra Mohammed is the executive director of the Pittsburgh Refugee Center and has worked with refugees in the United States and abroad for more than twenty years. Khadra lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Doug Chayka has illustrated several children's books, including Beekeepers by Linda Oatman High and Yanni Rubbish by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim (both Boyds Mills), and The Pink House at the Seashore by Deborah Blumenthal (Clarion). His work has also appeared in various publications, and has been honored by the Society of Illustrators. Doug teaches illustration at the Pratt Institute and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

A thoughtful yet serious picturebook, highly recommended for children's public library and personal collections.
Based on co-author Khadra Mohammed's experiences with refugees in Peshawar, a city on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Four Feet, Two Sandals is a children's picturebook about ten-year-old Lina and her young friend who each discover one of a wonderful pair of sandals. Together they must solve the problem of how to share one pair of sandles between four feet! As they wait and hope for their names to appear on a list for a new home, the sandals become a symbol of their fast friendship - a bond that will endure even when one of them finally has the opportunity to escape the hard conditions and live in a new land. The broad brush strokes of illustrator Doug Chayka draw the reader in to the harsh and barren world of the refugees, where positive human relationships are an particular treasure amid the daily difficulty of survival. A thoughtful yet serious picturebook, highly recommended for children's public library and personal collections.

too pc.
this book is going to be read to the children at my church. They will like the book but the couple of children who have read it needed it explained to them theat even though it was silly to only have one shoe there was a reason for the book. Missed the point for the kids.

Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children
Lina and Feroza, two young girls from Afghanistan living in a refugee camp in Pakistan, first meet after a frenzied crowd has jostled for used clothing that relief workers threw off the back of a truck. What could have been a misfortune, with each girl retrieving one sandal from a matching pair, turns out to be a stroke of luck as the girls take turns with the sandals and become friends. This friendship helps them to endure the hardships of their daily routines collecting water, washing clothes in the river, mourning lost family members, and caring for younger siblings while boys in the camp attend school. The sandals later take on a symbolic role when one of the girls leaves camp for a new home.

This moving book provides an effective tool for teaching about what it means to be a refugee, how children in refugee camps spend their time, and how the experiences can differ for girls and boys. Although the topic may be weighty and difficult, the tone is relatively subtle and hopeful so as to appeal to young readers. Intertwined with the touching story are valuable economics lessons about scarcity, human resources, wants, and needs. The dramatic artwork and compelling text work well together to make reading this book a memorable experience.