High Top
Tom Lacey
Little Tiger

Set in Shoe Town and starring a snazzy red trainer, dubbed the sneaker that just can’t stop, our hero is always on the lookout for fun in this lively romp. His unstoppability however, frequently ends in an upset, not for High Top, but for those he encounters as he hurls himself into the action wheresoever he finds it.
Having inadvertently discombobulated first Lorraine Boot, then the Shoezanne Ballerina and artist Vincent Van Toe,

High Top boings and whooshes his way to the park.

There, somewhat weary at last, he encounters Platoe, the most sagacious of shoes (and slippers). Platoe suggests High Top relaxes alongside him whereupon he cannot resist recounting to Platoe all the fun he’s had. What the wise one says in reply though, really does make High Top think hard about his actions.

Can he find it in himself to apologise and even think of a way to make amends to his fellow footwear for his ebullient actions. What would you do?

Laced with humour and soled with an important (maybe for some, a tad preachy) lesson for youngsters, this highly colourful, wacky tale with wordplay aplenty and a join-in chorus, was fashioned by Tom Lacey, which I discovered is – the ‘shoedonym’ of a group of creative ‘sole mates’ who have apparently written and illustrated a number of other books too.