LET'S LACE

For footwear DIYers, an elementary hands-on exercise with a long purple and yellow lace, holes punched through multiple bright, simple cartoon scenes and, to the side, a pop-up cardstock sneaker for further practice.

Catering to multiple learning styles, the instructions employ printed directions, numerals, arrows, animal guides and sequential groups of flowers to walk young learners through lacing skills. They proceed in steps through simple versions of both ladder and crisscross lacing then move on to tie three different kinds of looped bows. Plainly visible labels indicate starting points, and each project ends with a view of the finished product. The pop-up shoe is made from thinner stock than the rest of the production and isn’t designed to hold a real foot, but it will survive a certain amount of rough or repeated lacing-up.

There are dozens of ways to lace shoes, but even for the most fashion-conscious preschoolers, this makes a good first step. (Instructional pop-up/board book. 3-5)