The Shoe Bird

The Shoe Bird is a 1964 children's novel by Southern writer Eudora Welty.

[1] Welty, who had never written any children's literature before, wrote it to satisfy a contractual obligation with her publisher Harcourt Brace and to pay for a new roof on her house.

[3] Reception of the novel was mixed, with critic Nancy Hardgrove calling most reviews in major publications "cordial but restrained".

[2] Kirkus Reviews described the novel as uneventful: "Practically no action occurs during the lengthy discussion, which consists almost entirely of a stream of witticisms, many of which are irrelevant.

"[1] The review concludes wryly "the overly wordy result is so obscure that readers are likely to want to leave dictionaries as well as shoes to the birds.