LALI'S FLIP-FLOPS

A South Asian girl earns money to buy herself a pair of flip-flops.

Lali spends a busy morning cooking and building a fire. When she’s done working, a man hands her money. As she walks off, the “twisty-curvy path” hurts her bare feet. She encounters several of her animal friends, who make demands—a hen wants Lali to buy her lentils, a goat desires berries, and a bird needs ribbons to decorate a nest. At the market, Lali purchases flip-flops for her aching feet but doesn’t fill her friends’ requests. When she returns, the animals wail in distress, claiming that Lali has forgotten them and “let [them] down.” In response, Lali goes back to earn more money, fighting her hunger as she works, and later returns to the market. She buys gifts for her animal friends, who reward her with a picnic. As in Zia and Coleman’s previous book, Lali’s Feather (2020), the text has a playful lyricism driven by clever use of onomatopoeia accompanied by warm, appealing illustrations. However, it’s never clear why such a young girl is working—and, indeed, performing tasks unsafe for children, like building fires and handling heavy equipment. Equally troubling is the message that Lali was wrong to consider her own needs and that her friends’ well-being is more important than her own. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A visually and textually engaging tale with a concerning takeaway.