Shoe Wars (the laugh-out-loud, packed-with-pictures new adventure from the creator of Tom Gates)

By Author / Illustrator

Liz Pichon

Genre

Funny Stories

Age range(s)

Publisher

Scholastic

ISBN

9781407191096

Format

Hardback

Published

15-10-2020

Synopsis

A Sunday Times Children's Book of the Year pick' From the imagination of Tom Gates' multi-million-copy bestselling creator Liz Pichon... 'Following up a best-selling series like Tom Gates is no easy feat, but Liz Pichon does so in huge style in Shoe Wars [...] Bursting with imagination and fabulous gadgets, Shoe Wars is full of Pichon's characteristic warmth, humour and quirky illustrations.' The Bookseller Welcome to Shoe Town - and meet brother and sister Bear and Ruby Foot. They are running out of time to rescue their inventor dad from his hideous boss, Wendy Wedge. She'll do ANYTHING to win the glitzy Golden Shoe Award and knows that entering flying shoes is her hot ticket to the trophy. Flying shoes that Ruby and Bear just happen to be hiding... Get ready for a gadget-packed, wedge-of-your-feet adventure like no other! Laughs and pictures on every single page! More praise for Shoe Wars: 'As with the Tom Gates books, every page here is dynamic and attention-grabbing, packed with cartoons and typeface trickery.' Financial Times 'An original and outrageous storyline gives plenty of scope for absurd inventions, loathsome baddies and heroic deeds from underequipped underdogs. This is a tale oozing creativity and packed with pen and ink illustrations, exciting and expressive typography and visual jokes.' Booktrust 'Shoe Wars is an exciting story with lively characters that offer plenty of laughs [...] Like Pichon's other books, it can be enjoyed as a funny, action-packed page-turner, but also as a comic book of cartoons so that children can keep returning to their favourite bits again and again.' Books for Keeps

Reviews

Breaking out of the phenomenally successful Tom Gates series was never going to be easy but Liz Pichon's latest standalone adventure story, Shoe Wars, is arguably (I'd say definitely) her greatest achievement yet and forms a fabulous showcase for her very many talents.

Shoe Wars brings to life the story of nightmare bullying boss, Wendy Wedge, whose obsession with winning the glitzy, glamorous Golden Shoe Award knows no limits. Her ambition is to take over the whole of Shoe Town (next step the world) by closing down every independent shoe shop, employing all the shoe designers herself, making comfy slippers illegal and forcing everyone to wear her uncomfortable, clumpy wedges. Wendy knows that the only way she can win the coveted trophy is by entering never-before-seen-in-public flying shoes, shoes which have been developed by her employee, Ivor Foot, and which are currently being hidden by his children, Ruby and Bear Foot. What follows is an exciting, race against time, action-packed adventure full of impossibly evil villains, narrow escapes, nasty dogs, and crazy inventions.

Shoe Wars is a stylish and strikingly glamorous package with its shiny gold cover and wittily illustrated endpapers and, at a whopping 448 pages, is every bit as chunky as a pair of Wendy's wedges. Not that that will put off even the most reluctant of readers though. All the trademarks of the winning Tom Gates formula are here: cartoon illustrations, wacky wordplay, exciting typography and inventive page-setting.

Pacily-written, wildly-imaginative and brilliantly-plotted, Shoe Wars has more than its fair share of real edge-of-the-seat moments and it's laugh-out-loud funny to boot (especially the *Foot notes which form a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the action.) There's an extra depth here too with important underlying messages about family, bereavement, grief, friendship, not judging by appearances and the importance of working together in the face of adversity. The need to support independent businesses against the huge corporations is also firmly at the forefront of the story - which seems more timely than ever in our current economic climate.

Shoe Wars is a sure-fire winner for getting kids reading and is a book they'll keep coming back to for some comfort reading too. It's also sure to spark a multitude of creative curriculum-linked projects to design, illustrate, describe and maybe even market a cool and crazy gadget shoe.

Scholastic have also provided a downloadable activity pack including colouring poster, wordsearch, design sheets, memory game character cards, spot-the-difference puzzles, drawing tutorials and a build-a-shoe project,here:
https://d3ddkgxe55ca6c.cloudfront.net/assets/t1602692252/a/96/b0/shoewars-activitysheets-rgb-1971635.pdf

More crazy inventors take centre-stage in The Greatest Inventor by Ben Brooks. Fans of illustrated funny fiction will also enjoy Beaky Malone by Barry Hutchison, the Darcy Burdock stories by Laura Dockrill and the Ottoline Adventures by Chris Riddell. Liz Pichon fans also need to read the Storey Street series from Phil Earle and Sara Ogilvie - warm, family stories full of heart and very funny too.

448 pages / Ages 9+ / Reviewed by Eileen Armstrong, school librarian