Boots

Elizabeth Pulsford

Krista Brennan

Wombat Books, 2024

32pp., hbk., RRP $A26.99

9781761111037

Those who know me know that I like to create things using my imagination and my amazing embroidery machine, including author kits that inspire children to write their own stories.  So when I saw a design that took me back to my school days when the class was set a task to write a story about a pair of old boots – a story I still recall writing even though it was about 65 years ago – I knew I had to make it.  Who else might discover the world of words because they were inspired by something similar?

 

Those who know me also know I believe in serendipity and so it really was no surprise when I opened my mail a day later to discover this book that so matched my memories.

In something completely different to the modern stories for children that I usually read, this one follows the journey of a pair of ordinary workboots as they sit on the shoemaker’s shelf to be purchased by a young farmhand and worn daily until he (and they) die.  Shining a light on the ups and downs of rural life in a perfect fusion of simple text and evocative illustrations, the boots are witness to the highs and lows of family, fire, flood, drought… offering an insight into a life very different from that led by the majority of today’s children.

Although I can’t recall the details of that story I wrote, it would have been quite different to this one, for this one is timeless – it could be about Grandpa’s boots or it could be about a pair purchased by a young farmhand today underlining the regular routines of rural life regardless of extraneous events, ruled by the seasons.  It is an entertaining and engaging way to focus the reader’s thinking on the differences between city and country life, as it celebrates that sense of community and connectedness that is unique to small towns and surrounds.  

Maybe this will be among the award winners in the future, but for me, and the memories it evoked, it is already a winner.