Tarantula Shoes

Desperate to have the right shoes to start his first day of middle school, Ryan has set his sights on the $125 Slam Dunk Sky Jumpers—but can he put together the money in time?

Ryan O’Keefe can’t believe his bad luck. Moving to a new state right before sixth grade is hard enough, but when he finds out that sixth grade is part of middle school in Kentucky, he realizes he may have to spend the year getting picked on by the older students. When he meets a couple of seventh graders wearing Slam Dunk Sky Jumpers, the coolest new shoes, Ryan knows he has to have a pair, and then maybe he’ll be cool too. There’s just one problem: The shoes are $125—plus tax!
 
Ryan’s parents give him forty dollars, so now all he has to do is come up with eighty-five more and the shoes are his. The only question is, how is he going to get eighty-five dollars in the remaining week before school starts?

“Told in the first person, this well-written, often humorous story addresses the themes of conformity, peer pressure, and responsibility in a light, but authentic voice.” —School Library Journal
 
“Birdseye hits young adolescent concerns right on the mark, delivering his message with humor and empathy in a satisfying story that will appeal to middle-grade readers.” —Booklist
 
“Wholly without pretensions, Birdseye pens a piece of lightweight middle grade fiction, as pleasant as his other books, with engaging characters (especially Ryan’s younger twin siblings, who are convinced that an alien named Quando is coming to visit).” —Kirkus Reviews

As a kid, Tom Birdseye was decidedly uninterested in writing—or any academic aspect of school, for that matter—never imagining that he would eventually become a published author. And yet, nineteen titles later—novels, picture books, and nonfiction—that is exactly what has happened. His work has been recognized for its excellence by the International Reading Association, Children’s Book Council, National Council of Social Studies, Society of School Librarians International, Oregon Library Association, and Oregon Reading Association, among others. Combined, his books have either won or been finalists for state children’s choice awards forty-three times. Life, it seems, is full of who’d-a-thought-its. He lives and writes in Corvallis, Oregon, but launches mountaineering expeditions to his beloved Cascades on a regular basis.