Shoe Wars

Product Information

Readers who have devoured Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and the works of Raina Telgemeier will love the high-energy, hilarious antics of the Foot family from one of the largest names in the UK.

The new laugh-out-loud, spectacular adventure from multi-million-copy bestselling creator of TOM GATES, Liz Pichon. Welcome to Shoe Town – and meet Ruby and Bear Foot. Our 9+ Book of the Month for July has to be Shoe Wars. We have chosen Liz Pichon’s new novel because it is perfect not only for core middle-grade readers but also for younger fans who love the fantastic and crazy illustrations and for older kids and grown-ups who are drawn into the weird and wonderful world of Shoe Town. The fully illustrated text also keeps any reluctant readers engaged, and the adventure keeps you rooting for the kids. I loved seeing the kids try to help out their dad, try to make sure he is safe, later on there is even a big rescue in which the kids try to find there dad, but in the meantime find something that may be the rescue of everyone in this little town (which is, as expected from the big villain Wendy, even named after her). One night, Ruby is awakened to strange sounds coming from her father’s workshop. She goes to see what’s making the noise, and she sees her father flying in the air. He has flying shoes! Ruby thinks they’re amazing and is about to say something to her father when she hears him tell the cat that Ruby and Bear can never know about the flying shoes. I think my favorite character in the book was Bert. He was a good guy who refused to let Wendy get to him.

I loved reading about all the shoes, and the big show at the end was fantastic. Where do I sign up to get those shoes? Hello? Next to the fun show there was of course the big finale as Ivor, Bert, Betty, and the kids try to stop Wendy from doing any more. That part was also very exciting and I loved how it all came together. Just how far will Wendy go to win the award? How can Ivor get out from under Wendy's rule? And what sort of hijinks will happen along the way? SHOE WARS is a silly fun middle grade read that is somewhere between a graphic novel and chapter book. The story follows the siblings, Ruby and Bear, whose parents were in the shoe selling business until their mother died and the shoe giant, Wendy Wedge, swept in and bought them out. Their dad took their mother's designs and original shoes with him, but he knows Wendy would do anything to get her hands on them.

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Synopsis

All in all, I could probably talk more about the amazing flying shoes, the annoying Walter, the epilogue which seems to promise more story, that people lived in actual shoeboxes (just a bigger more liveable size), someone who just seems neighbourly becomes epic, treat your minions with kindness or things will bite you in your butt, but let me just cut the review here and tell you all to read this fun, hilarious, shoe-tastic book.

This new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author Liz Pichon is a standalone title in a whole new world separate from Tom Gates. Set in Shoe Town, big-bad-boss Wendy Wedge is obsessed with winning the Golden Shoe Award with the invention of flying shoes. But our star siblings Ruby and Bear are in a race against time to rescue the inventor – their dad! – and save the day. All the hilarity and crazy antics you would expect from Tom Gates, along with some super-cool gadgets, the baddest baddies and tons of shoes. Product Details Format https://d3ddkgxe55ca6c.cloudfront.net/assets/t1602692252/a/96/b0/shoewars-activitysheets-rgb-1971635.pdf I have read most of the Tom Gates books and while I enjoy them, because of the fun art and Liz Pichon’s fun writing style, I was a bit bored of the series. So imagine my delight when I saw she wrote something TOTALLY different. This time about shoes, and a mean shoe villain, and family. I just had to try it out, and I can tell you that this was just the best and the most fun! David Almond introduces his new picture book, A Way to the Stars, a story about perseverance and finding a way to make dreams come true. I loved Shoe Wars. It is an adorable story told with wit, creativity, energy, and fun. It’s reading at its best for kids and for kids at heart. I definitely recommend you buy this one for your kids (and read it yourself before handing it over. It reminds you of what being a kid is all about!).I found this to be a very interesting read. It's a bit wild at times, but in a fun, crazy adventure sort of way. I really liked it. Suspense and Thrillers Many times this is a mystery, but not always. A thriller is the push and pull between the good and the bad guy(s). Suspense is the tension and the unpredictable factor. As much as I enjoyed this story and the way it was presented, it felt too long. In time I began to lose interest in the story, footnotes, and the fun play on names. The kids are awesome (not just for the above mentioned part, but also with other things, though I was shaking my head at what they did earlier in the book that caused a lot of bad things to happen and didn’t make me happy), but other characters that we see in this book are also well written. Like Bert, the only guy not under contract of Wendy and the only one who still has his own shoe store. Or Betty, who works with Ivor but is definitely not amused with her employer. Or Chelsea, Betty’s daughter. As much as I enjoyed this story and the way it was presented, it felt too long. In time I began to lose interest in the story, footnotes, and the fun play on names. My Final Thoughts

Final verdict: Ridiculous and charming, SHOE WARS is a light-hearted and delightfully illustrated middle grade book that would be great for reluctant readers and early chapter book readers. Our 9+ Book of the Month for October and November has to be Shoe Wars. We have chosen Liz Pichon’s new novel because it is perfect not only for core middle-grade readers but also for younger fans who love the fantastic and crazy illustrations and for older kids and grown-ups who are drawn into the weird and wonderful world of Shoe Town. The fully illustrated text also keeps any reluctant readers engaged, and the adventure keeps you rooting for the kids. Ruby and Bear Foot live with their father Ivor, who makes shoes. He works for Wendy Wedge. Almost everyone in Shoetown works for Wendy Wedge. She has a giant factory where she makes wedge shoes. Because she has so much power in town, she was able to close almost all the other shoe stores and has made almost all of the shoemakers work for her. She makes all the schoolchildren wear her wedges, which aren’t very comfortable and make it hard for them to run and play.

I was most impressed by the number of serious issues Pichon managed to introduce to her audience without ever flattening the momentum with didactics. She teaches her readers that keeping endangered animals in captivity is bad, that keeping small businesses afloat is better than seeing them taken over by large companies and she even touches lightly on tax evasion! All this and at no time does the story feel clunky or overfilled. It is fast-paced from tip to toe and hilarious every step of the way. Shoe Wars is Liz Pichon’s newest adventure in middle grade fiction. As writer and illustrator of Shoe Wars, she brings all the characters to life with playful whimsy and inventive storytelling. With clever touches like the *Foot notes, and lively designs that combine the art and the type in eye-catching styles, Pichon’s work can keep the attention of middle graders (or adults with distraction issues, which I certainly wouldn’t know anything about). My daughters have come to that wonderful age where they can enjoy a chapter book being read to them at bedtime. I have looked forward to this for years. We have read and loved the majority of the Tom Gates series, and are all huge fans, so I figured Shoe Wars was going to be a hit. Every year, all the shoemakers get together for The Golden Shoe Awards. Wendy Wedge tries to win it every year, but she never does. She thinks that if she could just invent flying shoes (or if one of the shoemakers working for her would invent flying shoes, those would be hers too), then she could win The Golden Shoe Awards. But none of the shoemakers have been able to make flying shoes.