SHOESHINE WHITTAKER

PLB 0-8027-8715-0 It’s muddy, and the people’s shoes are cruddy, in Mudville, a state of affairs that suits Shoeshine Whittaker, itinerant buffer of footwear, just fine. His wagon rolls into the frontier town early one morning, he sets up his guaranteed-shine shop, and by evening he’s a richer man, with a whole town of spit-polished beauty in his wake. The next morning he is rudely awakened by the sheriff; the citizenry’s shoes are no longer as “shiny as a mail-order mirror.” Shoeshine points out that he didn’t guarantee the shoes would stay sparkling, but must do some fast-thinking to keep the mob at bay. He puts his rags to the ultimate test, polishing up the whole town so as to keep his guarantee good; he dazzles the townfolk into a state of eyestrain, headaches, and a new wish for Shoeshine’s hide. When he devises a shine-duller, the good old mud of Mudville, all returns to normal. Satisfaction guaranteed is a notion that Ketteman plays with to good comic effect. Goto’s artwork lights a fire under the story’s action, with mock high drama and midst-of-the-doings perspectives. (Picture book. 5-8)