In Your Shoes by Donna Gephart

Hello, Donna Gephart! I’m THRILLED you dropped by to celebrate In Your Shoes and to finish my sentences. I think Amy and Miles will inspire readers to have meaningful and thoughtful conversations about life, death, friendship, love, and bowling. This two-hankie novel will stay with me for a long time.

Donna Gephart: Mr. Schu! I was so excited for you to read In Your Shoes. (You know why!) Thank you for helping me share this book with others. It was the hardest book to write and the one I’m most excited to share.

Thank you for writing this story. Thank you for not telling me WHY you were excited for me to read In Your Shoes before I read it. It was the most lovely surprise. :) 

Chris Silas Neil’s illustration and Bob Bianchini’s design for the In Your Shoe’s cover managed to create curious questions: Why is Miles staring up at Amy? What is Amy writing in that book? And why is there a giant bowling shoe on the cover?

Miles is such a nervous wreck. I want to give him a hug and tell him everything will be okay. But will it? I love that Miles researches fascinating, oddball ways people have died throughout history . . . to relax!

Amy thinks she’ll be able to write her way to her own happily ever after. But will she? I love that the fairy tale Amy writes throughout the novel mirrors the story of the novel itself. Writing a story within a story proved challenging, but, I hope, lots of fun to read.

Friends are the glue that holds this story together. They are literally life-saving when needed most.

Bowling is the sport played by most Americans, more than baseball and football, with over 5,000 bowling centers across the country and over 70 million participants. So it’s fitting that the settings for In Your Shoes are a bowling center . . . and a funeral home.

School libraries are a sanctuary for some kids. They’re also a passport to a wider world (both internal and external) for young people. If I were in charge, every school would have a well-stocked library run by a certified librarian. School libraries are places where magic can happen . . . and often does.

Mr. Schu, you should have asked me why I was so excited to have YOU read this book. But I guess everyone will have to read a copy to find out.

Look for In Your Shoes on October 30, 2018.