Shoup House Party Kicks Off Local Author's Book Launch

For years, Tricia Jennings had shared, commiserated and celebrated with other moms in her group all kinds of milestones, from birthdays to new births.

When one of the moms, Sue Fliess, said she was going to write a children's book, "I thought, 'yeah, right,'" Jennings said. And then she pledged to throw her a book party.

That's what she mirthfully told a gathering of University Avenue neighbors, friends and the moms' group Friday evening at a celebration for the birth of Shoes For Me, Fliess' first children's book, which was released March 1. Jennings made good on her promise with a party at her home, the , which she and her husband Bill just finished restoring.

Shoes For Me is a rhyming, rhythmic, fanciful story of a hippo whose mother allows her to choose her own pair of shoes. And thus ensues the quest to find the perfect pair of shoes—a painstaking search familiar to any fashionista mom.

co-owner was on hand to take orders, after a shipping problem prevented ample copies of the book to be on hand for signing.

Fliess' launch is Sunday morning, when she will be reading at Storytime at Keplers, at 11:30 a.m. and signing books. Keplers is at 1010 El Camino Real, in Menlo Park.

Fliess has also partnered with two charities to get both gently used books and shoes to those who need them. Through the month of March, "Run to Read: Putting Shoes on Feet and Books in Hands," will accept books and shoes at local bookstores and institutions. The shoe and book donations go to Soles4Souls and Bring Me A Book Foundation. So far, she's collected more than 500 pairs of shoes, which will likely go to Haiti, which is still struggling to recover from last year's devatating earthquake.

Downtown boutique also provided shoe discount coupons to attendees with a pledge to make a donation from sales to Soles4Souls as well.

For other readings and signings, including an April 23 reading at Linden Tree in downtown Los Altos, see www.suefliess.com