Tom Curry (2)

Lowell, S., Curry, T. (1997). The Bootmaker and the Elves. New York, New York: Orchard Paperbacks.

This is a retelling of the story The Elves and the Shoemaker. A poor cowboy bootmaker lived with his wife in the southwest. They did not have enough to eat, and the bootmaker only had enough leather for one more pair of boots. He cut out all the pieces and left them out to finish in the morning. When he awoke, the leather was magically turned into a beautiful and perfect new pair of boots. The bootmaker sold these and bought more leather for two pairs of boots. Each night he leaves the leather pieces out, and each day new pairs of boots are created and sitting on the workbench. The bootmaker and his wife hid one night and discover elves coming in to create the boots, but they looked poor. The bootmaker and his wife made them tiny clothes and boots. They left them out for the elves who were ecstatic, but never came back to the store. The bootmaker and his wife continued to happily make boots forever. I would use this books in my classroom to work on reading idioms, similes, and metaphors. The language in the book is very descriptive.

This book won the blue ribbon award The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. This award is given to books that represent the best in children’s literature from each year. It also won the Spur Award which is awarded to the best modern western books.… (més)

I really enjoyed reading this book because it was relatable and had language that I am not familiar with using. The book was about two brothers who do not get along because they are always competing against each other to be the best. Their mother wants them to come to her house and celebrate her birthday and the only present she wants is for them to stop fighting while they are there. It is a really windy day and every time their mother goes inside they try to out-do each other on who has experienced the windy day. Before they know it, everything around them is getting swept up in the wind and their mother gets stuck on top of the barn. They have to help each other get her down. This is a relatable story because many people feel as if they have to compete with their siblings to seem more competent. Almost anyone would be able to insert themselves into this story and connect it to something that has happened in their life and it makes it interesting to read. This book also used a lot of language that I would consider "old western" slang. It was interesting for me to read each sentence that included this unfamiliar language. I was unsure what some of it meant so I had to use the pictures and the context clues to assist me. The illustrations also added a lot to this story. The two brothers' differences were showcased even further by their juxtaposition in the illustrations. The big idea of this story is that family and love come over any meaningless competition that is going on in your life. You will always help each other out when it comes to something that matters to each of you.… (més)

Creativity and Soul:
I chose these words for fractured fairytale, "The Bootmaker and the Elves" because these are the two things that the bootmaker lacked at the beginning to make decent boots. At the start of the book, making boots was just his chosen profession and since he didn’t enjoy it and wasn’t very good at it, the bootmaker and his wife were “plumb broke.” However, when gorgeous boots began appearing in the mornings after the man had cut leather for them, his dreams at night became filled with new and creative ideas for boots! The more he sold, the more leather he was able to purchase, and the more beautiful boots were being made, the more his imagination began to run wild with visions of new boots that he could create. By the time he and his wife figured out that two little elves were finishing the boots, the bootmaker had thousands of fantastic ideas for boots he could make and he started by making two tiny pairs of boots for four tiny little feet. After the elves had their new boots and clothes (made by the bootmaker’s wife), the two danced off into the night, happy as could be. After they left, the bootmaker was able to put all his creative ideas into practice and put everything he had – heart and soul – into making beautiful boots so that he and his wife “stayed fat and sassy ever after.”… (més)