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If the Shoe Fits
An original take on some favorite nursery rhymes - this is one search for a new house that's bound to be more pleasure than trouble.
There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children,
she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth
without any bread,
Then took them to live
in a new home instead.
Too messy, too woolly, too noisy, too small. Whether it's Humpty Dumpty's wall or Mother Hubbard's cupboard, the old woman (who once lived in a shoe) and her children (who once lived there, too) just can't seem to find a new home big enough for their growing needs. So where will they turn for a cozy night's rest? The perfect place is only a step away -- no moving van required!
There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children,
she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth
without any bread,
Then took them to live
in a new home instead.
Too messy, too woolly, too noisy, too small. Whether it's Humpty Dumpty's wall or Mother Hubbard's cupboard, the old woman (who once lived in a shoe) and her children (who once lived there, too) just can't seem to find a new home big enough for their growing needs. So where will they turn for a cozy night's rest? The perfect place is only a step away -- no moving van required!
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
2 people are currently reading
682 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
November 12, 2025
The old woman who lives in a shoe decides it's time to move. But as she leads her kids through a variety of other nursery rhymes looking for shelter, things go awry.
It's an intriguing concept, but the rhymes and action just fell short for me and for my daughter when she was three.
It's an intriguing concept, but the rhymes and action just fell short for me and for my daughter when she was three.
March 16, 2020
This book is so cute! It is about an old lady who has many children and live in a shoe. The shoe was not big enough for all her children so she wanted to find a new home. The old lady and her children traveled to many different places and tried to find a new home. The places were very odd, but this made the story fun.
I would definitely read this book to my future class. I think this book could be used a couple of different ways. One way would be to read this book before doing a sequence of events lesson. It has many different events and the students could draw them out. Another way would be to read it along with a setting lesson. The book has a couple of different “homes” for the old lady and her children. So, this would be a great way to show students how setting can change everything in a story.
I would definitely read this book to my future class. I think this book could be used a couple of different ways. One way would be to read this book before doing a sequence of events lesson. It has many different events and the students could draw them out. Another way would be to read it along with a setting lesson. The book has a couple of different “homes” for the old lady and her children. So, this would be a great way to show students how setting can change everything in a story.
January 28, 2022
Between reading "adult" books, I am on a mission to read all the illustrated books I have throughout the house. This one made me smile. The concept of the old woman who lived in a shoe is changed in this book. She is moving out of the shoe and taking the children with her as she attempts to live with them in various other dwellings.
They moved to and old hat, shared with a cat who played the fiddle all night long. Dancing with a spoon caused mama and her babies to leave in fright.
Next move is to Little Jack Horner's warm woolen coat that caused an allergic reaction, so she moved her children inside a green sock that was hung from a clock. The mouse scared them away as the clock turned to one and they found a tub.
Not liking the crowded tub, they found a wall where all the king's horses and men and an egg exploded just then.
Next up: Mama moves her babies inside a tea cup, then a torn glove and misc. other abodes until she discovered the shoe was the best place after all.
Creative with illustrations that bring laughter, this is a delightful book to read to a youngster who loves to laugh. And, I recommend it for an adult who needs a laugh as well.
They moved to and old hat, shared with a cat who played the fiddle all night long. Dancing with a spoon caused mama and her babies to leave in fright.
Next move is to Little Jack Horner's warm woolen coat that caused an allergic reaction, so she moved her children inside a green sock that was hung from a clock. The mouse scared them away as the clock turned to one and they found a tub.
Not liking the crowded tub, they found a wall where all the king's horses and men and an egg exploded just then.
Next up: Mama moves her babies inside a tea cup, then a torn glove and misc. other abodes until she discovered the shoe was the best place after all.
Creative with illustrations that bring laughter, this is a delightful book to read to a youngster who loves to laugh. And, I recommend it for an adult who needs a laugh as well.
April 9, 2020
A new way to "reboot" (get it) the classic Mother Goose rhyme about the old woman living in a shoe with a huge bunch of kids. But she needs to relocate to some "other" residence...like maybe a hat, or a coat pocket, or a tub, or a sink... except everyone in Fairy Tale Town from Miss Muffet to Humpty, from King Cole the merry old soul to the Queen of Hearts are not fond of accepting new residents. The part where the miniature old lady and her miniature kids try hiding in the BLOUSE of the Queen of Hearts is...kinda kinky actually. (Dirty thought dujour: the kids need milk to wash down her tasty tarts, yuk yuk!) They finally find an old boot, where they remain happily....you know the rest. All sorts of rhymes in the Mother Goose-iverse have been given the makeover it deserves in one little volume by Alison Jackson! Now if only Cinderella could move in, cos...she too is missing a shoe!
Four stars
SHOE Alison Jackson some LOOOOVE!!!😘
Four stars
SHOE Alison Jackson some LOOOOVE!!!😘
March 9, 2018
This is a book about a women who had many children and lived in a shoe. One day she thought the shoe was too small for her family to live in so she picked up and moved. The book takes us through the families adventure to different places. As the family goes from place to place she realizes they cannot live any other place and they end back in the shoe. In the end if the shoe fits, then why leave?
3 book topic ideas
1.) This book has a lot of rhymes so this is a good book to work on students rhymes and identify them as well as making their own story with rhymes in it.
2.) This book can be used to talk about students families and where they live or just more about them in general.
3.) The students can also work on counting the people or animals on each of the different pages.
3 book topic ideas
1.) This book has a lot of rhymes so this is a good book to work on students rhymes and identify them as well as making their own story with rhymes in it.
2.) This book can be used to talk about students families and where they live or just more about them in general.
3.) The students can also work on counting the people or animals on each of the different pages.
November 5, 2017
Love how author Allison Jackson and Karla Firehammer twist this story to play in many nursery rhymes. The moral of this story is nicely stated. It showed readers it is important to be content and thankful for what you have. Sometimes when you want more it doesn't work out quite how you want it to. Great read!
Grade level: k-5
Genre: Traditional Fantasy
Grade level: k-5
Genre: Traditional Fantasy
August 7, 2018
This rhyming book based upon traditional Mother Goose rhymes must have bee a lot of work to write. I don't think it will appeal to the young nursery rhyme crowd, as most of them won't have the background knowledge to really "get it." I want to like this book more than I do.
November 19, 2019
This is a cute story with rhyming words on every page! The illustrations were thoughtful and went perfectly along side the story being told. I would definitely use this book to teach rhyming with my students in the future for a read aloud!
February 23, 2011
What a witty and clever combination of nursery rhymes! This would be a fantastic book to use at the end of a nursery rhyme unit. Young children through 2nd grade would really enjoy this book, although the older children and adults may get a kick out of remembering the nursery rhymes. The illustrations in "If the Show Fits" are spectacular.I love the watercolor like, smooth feel that the illustrations give off even in the hectic search for a place to live. Since the mother gets lost in other nursery rhymes a neat activity to do once students have mastered some of the nursery rhymes is to have them create a short story about someone in search of a shoe and their adventure getting mixed up in the nursery rhymes.
March 9, 2011
This book is about a boy, Rigo, who is from Mexico and has 3 brother, 1 sister, and 2 parents. It shows how a typical family from this heritage interacts and what it looks like. He talks about what it is like to live with so many people and have 4 siblings. He is kind of sad because he always gets hand-me-downs from his older siblings. Although, for this birthday he gets new loafers! He is very excited about them until a boy makes fun of them and, as a result, Rigo decides to stop wearing them. Later in the story, Rigo pulls his loafers back out to try them on and realizes that they don't fit anymore! He is sad but decides to give them to his Uncle to wear because he wears old clothes and old shoes and knows he would like them. This book also incorporates some Spanish words and lingo.
February 17, 2011
Alison Jackson was quite clever with how she combined numerous nursery rhymes into one book! As a child, I loved nursery rhymes, so this book would be ideal for me! I think this book is a great model for implementing several texts into one text, which is something I'd want my students and I to model as a class. I also loved the rhyming that took place through-out the text as well as the different types of writing styles. Also, I can even see myself implementing a math lesson by using measurement to measure the different sizes of feet in the class. Ultimately, the ideas are endless when it comes to " If the Shoe Fits!".
March 1, 2011
I think this was such a cute book! It was about a family that lived in a shoe, and decided they wanted a new house. So they go through different nursery rhymes and visit those houses. They soon realize that none of those houses work, and their house is just right for them. I liked it because it went through all the nursery rhymes, and children will love that they can recognize those stories. I also like it because it shows different homes and that everybody lives in different places. So students can feel comfortable talking about their home, even though it might be different from someone else.
April 23, 2012
This is such a fun book. The old lady and her children need more space, so they move through different fairy tails to try to find some, but it is all already taken. I would definitely use this story for sequencing or point of view. It would be fun for the students to write parts of this story from another point of view. They could write like they were one of the children (and manybe he doesn't like moving). They could also write from the perspective of some of the other fairy tail characters who have their space invaded.
November 5, 2012
I really think that the children would love having this book read to them. This book would be most efficient for working on rhyming words, there is rhyming throughout the whole story. But if you wanted to extend the lesson, you could also work on sequencing. This would be perfect for sequencing because at the beginning of the story, the mother and children move out of the shoe looking for a new home, and they move in search of different places, and by the end of the story, they end back up in the shoe.
January 27, 2015
This takes several nursery rhymes and combines them into a story. Some of the nursery rhymes this book refers to include: The Little Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, Hickory-Dickory Doc, Little Miss Muffet, Old Mother Hubbard and more. This book carries the rhymes throughout the book. I like this book because it give a twist to the old-fashioned nursery rhymes, but still contains the rhyming theme. Students that have some common knowledge about nursery rhymes would enjoy trying to match the rhymes to their original nursery rhyme.
April 13, 2010
This was a really cute book about a family that moves around to different objects trying to find a comfortable place to live. They end up coming back to the shoe that they lived in from the beginning. This just helps students to be happy with what they have and to feel like home is a place that they are connected to. Their home is theirs and it does not matter what it looks like or if it is too small, but that they as a family make it their own and make it their home.
September 16, 2010
This book is a very humorous book. It is about an old lady that lives a shoe and she wants to fit alot of peoepl and things in it.She works very hard to fit everyone in the little shoe but eventually she runs out of room and she becomes stumped into what to do. This book expresses to young children that building community is important. Without community we wouldn't have a world to live in. We need each other.
April 23, 2012
I really lie this book because it includes so many nursery rhymes as the women in the shoe tries to find a new location for her large family. In the end she goes right back to where she started int eh shoe. I think this would work really well for an introduction on environment, and how important it is. Many creatures can only survive or thrive in one type of environment, the others just don't fit, just like the family in the shoe.
Grade: 3rd- habitats
Grade: 3rd- habitats
February 28, 2012
If the Shoe Fits by Alison Jackson is a book about a mother and her children who lives in a shoe and believes that they need a new home. This book follows the mother and children's search for a new home in many different object. This book can be used to teach K-1 students about sequencing. Students can make a map of all the places the mother and her children went through to find the perfect home.
December 30, 2012
What a great book! A mother lives with her children in a large shoe. But when things get crowded, they go on an adventure to find a new place to live. The places they go correlate with nursery rhymes from my childhood. And the family ends up back in their shoe. Very clever book.
This book can be used after talking about nursery rhymes in Kindergarten or First Grade. I would use it after the unit so that students will be able to see how the different nursery rhymes have been woven together.
This book can be used after talking about nursery rhymes in Kindergarten or First Grade. I would use it after the unit so that students will be able to see how the different nursery rhymes have been woven together.
March 21, 2012
Cute story. I like how the book incorporates many different nursery rhymes in it. This offers lots of varation to the children as well as them learning more that one thing from the book. It woudl be a great book for new readers because they might be able to relate from memory the nursery rhymes. I also like how it gives a new twist to some of the nursery rhymes. I just hope that it wouldnt be confuning to the children.
December 15, 2016
This is a bit of a rhyming book about a mother and her kids who go from place to place to live. They start in an old shoe that is a little too small, and go to different places to live that end up not working out. Eventually, they return to the shoe that is just a little too small, but still fits.
I would read this to first or second graders. I would use this as part of my morning meeting. We could have a discussion after reading the book about why the mother went back to the shoe.
I would read this to first or second graders. I would use this as part of my morning meeting. We could have a discussion after reading the book about why the mother went back to the shoe.
May 2, 2011
This book is about a family that is too big to live in a shoe. The mom takes the children to different "homes" to try to find a place that would be more comfortable to live in. Eventually the family returns to their first home and realize that it is just perfect for them. This could be used to discuss the social studies aspect that the same home doesn't work for every family.
September 15, 2010
This book is great after reading old nursery rhymes. Students can make predictions, relate text-to-text, text-to-world , text-to-self. The book is enjoyable. A great read , well written. This book can also be used for writing like readers to inspire students to use something already done to tell their stories ,they could use title of songs ect !!!!
November 17, 2010
Great Book to teach rhyming and making predications
A mother takes a child to live in different clothing accessories which turn into their homes for a brief time. The old mother and her entire clan of children end up at the original shoe.
This book could be used to make connections for children that do not live in houses or apartments, but for students that live with a lot of relatives.
A mother takes a child to live in different clothing accessories which turn into their homes for a brief time. The old mother and her entire clan of children end up at the original shoe.
This book could be used to make connections for children that do not live in houses or apartments, but for students that live with a lot of relatives.
February 3, 2011
This would be good to read to a large population of children who move a lot or have just moved to the school. It could also be used to tell children not to be ashamed of who they are or where they came from. Lots of discussion can be made from this book about the nursery rhymes that they travel through.
February 23, 2011
This book would be a great story for children who move from different homes, states, or schools. This book can help children understand that moving around happens and it is not a bad thing, and it would also be fun to see how many of the nursery rhymes the children can remember while reading the book!
February 23, 2011
This book was very interesting. The book had great illustrations and the story was very engaging. This book includes lots of traditional nursery rhymes. I enjoyed reading this book and will share it in my classroom. Every family is different. No matter where you live as long as the family is all together, it's still a family.
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February 11, 2011This was a good story it was rhying so it's good for practicing ryhtm in reading and also had very vivid illustrations. Somthign good about this book that kids may notice also wasthe fact that if was a combonation of nursery rhymes so may be good to read if you teachign a lesson on retellign a story with you own twist
Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews