The Blue Shoe

by Roderick Townley

  Roderick Townley has taught in Chile on a Fulbright Fellowship and worked in New York as a journalist. He now writes from his home in Kansas. His highly acclaimed novels include The Red Thread, Sky, and the three books of the Sylvie Cycle: The Great Good Thing, Into the Labyrinth, and The Constellation of Sylvie. In a starred review for The Great Good Thing, Kirkus Reviews raved, “Townley has created that most impossible thing: a book beloved from the first page.”

  You can read more about Roderick Townley and his books at rodericktownley.com.

  Mary GrandPré is perhaps best known for creating the jackets and illustrations for the Harry Potter books. She has also illustrated many fine picture books, including Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat by Jennifer Armstrong and Lucia and the Light by Phyllis Root. You can read more about Mary GrandPré and her work at marygrandpre.com.

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2009 by Roderick Townley

  Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Mary GrandPré

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Townley, Rod.

  The blue shoe : a tale of thievery, villainy, sorcery, and shoes / by Roderick Townley;

  illustrated by Mary GrandPré. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: A mysterious stranger commissions a single, valuable shoe from a humble

  cobbler, changing the cobbler’s life and the life of his young apprentice forever.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89417-6

  [1. Fables.] I. GrandPré, Mary, ill. II. Title.

  PZ8.2.T67B12009

  [Fic]—dc22

  2008043851

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.0