Loops - Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF

2 minutes ago
3 min read

Do you remember your (or your kids) angst over learning to tie shoes? I remember trying repeatedly to get the bunny ears to cross and stay tightly together. This wonderful picture boo, gently, and on the child's own terms, explores the triumphs, worries, and angst of a child trying to keep his new big-kid shoes laced and on his feet.

Book cover - a boy bending down to tie shoe laces, standing to admire the job, and running off the cover of the book.

Loops

Author/Illustrator: Jashar Awan

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (March 3, 2026)

Ages: 4 - 8

Fiction

Themes:

Growing up, new experiences and skills, self-esteem, and perseverance.

Synopsis:

This big kid is wearing his first pair of big-kid shoes, the kind with laces! Even though they’re a little on the roomy side—shoes to grow into, of course—he knows he can take care of them. Except they keep falling off!

Not to worry, he’ll just tie them up again, because he knows how to tie those loops! But wait a second, where did that darn shoe go?

Nothing is ever truly easy when you’re just starting something new; but, just like with any stage in childhood, whether it’s making your first steps, or going down the really big slide, with persistence, doing anything scary or overwhelming quickly becomes a piece of cake! And before you know it, you’re a BIG KID!

Opening Lines:

I can’t keep

losing these shoes.

My first ones with laces.

Big-kid shoes.

And big-kid shoes mean I need

to be a big kid.

But these shoes are too big.

What I LOVED about this book:

After seeing a kid running across the end pages, with a shoe on his left foot and a black and white sock on his right, the title page importantly starts the book with the exclamation, "There it is! MY SHOE!"

Title page - on the left, a boy starts running onto the page, only his left arm, right foot, and face are seen. On the right, in a bit of grass lies his untied red shoe.

Text & Image © Jashar Awan, 2026.

On the opening spread, we learn that this is his first pair of laced, "big-kid shoes." And obviously, being a "big-kid" means keeping these big kid shoes on his feet. With a big, infectious grin, the child offers to show the reader how he ties the shoes. Jashar Awan does a great job breaking the task into pieces, with short clear instructions, and using two colors of laces to help make it clear, especially for visual learners. Then, the book very gently and honestly portrays the boy's initial joy at successfully tying his shoe, "TA-DA!", his momentary frustration as it slips loose again, and the child's self-reassuring comment, "It's okay -- I'm still learning . . ."

Internal spread - on the left, a child demonstrating three steps of tying his shoe. On the right, child stands on one foot showing off the tied shoe, then looks down at it untied again, and bends to tie it once again.

I like the shifting use 0f solid-colored backgrounds, which focus the eye and attention onto the child and his goal. Once the shoe gets tied, the boy is off and running off the edge of a green page. As he charges onto the edge of the next page, toward a playground on a continuing green background, he declares that being a big-kid, "takes a lot of practice."

Comparing this new skill to learning to swing without a push. I love the enthusiasm and wild abandon as he confidently jumps from the swing. And remember the number of times, where an "OOF!" got followed by a shake and a triumphant "TA-DA!" It's wonderful that the book offers no lecture, no explanations, just a perfectly paced moment for the kid to reset himself. I also love the motion, energy, and freedom that Jashar Awan captures in the motion of the child and swing.

Internal spread - on the left, six "stop motion" still of a boy swinging high and jumping from the swing. On the right, the boy lands sprawled on his stomach, kneels with a "squwiggle" above his head, then stands tripumphantly with fist raised over his head.

Once again, the shoe unties again as he heads for the slide, where he marvels that practice (playing on tall slides) makes things less scary - including being a bi-kid. The illustrations gorgeously capture the movement and joy of playing on a slide and merry-go-round in small almost stop-motion moments that are perfect, especially when combined with the succinct, sparse text, for young listeners and readers.

When he loses the shoe, the angst is so perfectly represented and earned. Without feeling preachy, the kid heads off in a marvelous tribute to Family Circus on a search through the playground and an ingenious and positive ending which wraps back to the beginning of the book. Immediately encouraging another read and another. This is a delightful, supportive, and playful book on giving ourselves (and others) grace as we learn new things and the benefits of persistence and practice.

Resources:

draw or make a picture, or write a story, about something that was hard for you when you first tried it but has gotten easier the more you do it.

check out these fun crafts that also help develop motor skills.

try out a couple of games that help kids practice some "big-kid" skills.

If you missed my interview with Jashar Awan on Monday, find it (here).

This post is part of a series of blog posts by authors and KidLit bloggers called Perfect Picture Book Fridays. For more picture book suggestions and resources see Susanna Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Books.