Shoe Wars

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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?

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. Liz Pichon’s imagination and creativeness bring us a story about right and wrong, good and evil. On the good side, we have Ruby and Bear Foot, children of Ivor, whose wife Sally died in a mysterious accident. The Foot family is trying to keep a particular shoe that Sally created before her death hidden. Bestselling author Alexandra Christo, author of TikTok sensation To Kill a Kingdom, introduces her new book, The Night Hunt (Hot Key Books), a dark... Written and presented by Nicholas Smith, with 1Xtra presenter Ace. The drama is written by Al Smith.My daughters loved to hate Wendy Wedge, an awful dictator pf Shoe Town and a great villain along with her nasty assistant and spoilt brat of a son. The writing is wonderfully paced, similar to Tom Gates book, making it an easy read for even the most tired of parent. My only complaint and I even feel silly complaining about it, were the names, I found the shoe references in every name more irksome than entertaining, but the girls didn’t seem to feel the same. 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. Comic Book / Graphic Novel Sequential narrative with illustrations that are usually presented in a specific layout but not always.

With her clever use of voice and varying typography, Pichon makes the whole book read like a child telling you a story, making Shoe Wars relatable to even the most reluctant reader. This book offers a light romp for kids to whiz through, and Pichon’s accompanying doodles make it all the more fun. Strictly speaking, this story was more fun than finding your FAVORITE shoes on sale in every color of the rainbow in EXACTLY your size! 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. Author Anna Kemp introduces The Hollow Hills, the sequel to her dark magical tale, Into Goblyn Wood. I think my favorite character in the book was Bert. He was a good guy who refused to let Wendy get to him.

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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). In this story of hope and endurance, we follow a scientist and her team during their search for the elusive 'Giant Arctic Jellyfish'. 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 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 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. The one thing children may find confusing is Pichon’s switching between referring to Ruby and Bear’s father as ‘Dad’ and ‘Ivor’ in the same dialogue, giving the effect of two separate characters in a conversation. Pichon perhaps did this to remind her readers what ‘Dad’s’ name is for when she would have to refer to him by name, though this might have been otherwise achieved less confusingly. There’s an old saying that goes something like this: You can tell a lot about a person from the shoes they’re wearing.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! 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. I loved how interactive the adventures Ruby and Bear had. The art style had that just-right feeling. Something about it brought me nostalgia from reading Roald Dahl books. I would say it's a lot like Big Nate and Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. It has illustrations throughout, but it's no children's book. 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. The book is also illustrated and I loved the illustrations. Oh, btw, was that Tom Gates near the end with the award show starting?

Shoe Wars is a strange but quirky book about two kids and their dad. They live in Shoe Town, which has been taken over by a woman named Wendy Wedge. Wendy is a nasty piece of work. She's an egomaniac who thinks she's entitled to the Golden Shoe Award, something she's never won even though she enters every year. She's also got a son named Walter, who is a giant bully. Wendy, though, makes sure Walter gets whatever he wants, whenever he wants, because he's a "genius" and is her "perfect boy." Can we say ugh? The villain, Wendy Wedge, was well written. That is pretty rare. Sometimes I am just so frustrated with a villain I cannot read on. But with Wendy? I could. I was curious what her next elaborate plan would be and how many wedges did this girl have? We learn quite a bit about her, though there was one fact I saw coming for miles. Especially since, if Wendy Wedge finds them, she will steal them for herself, win The Golden Shoe Award, and take over all the shoe stores, making all the shoemakers work for her in every town. Wendy Wedge getting her hands on those flying shoes would be the worst thing ever.I have to say, Wendy and Walter were awful I hated both of them immediately. It's like if Cruella de Vil was obsessed with shoes instead of Dalmatians, and he had a son, that would be Wendy Wedge.