Strictly speaking, this story was more fun than finding your FAVORITE shoes on sale in every color of the rainbow in EXACTLY your size! 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

Women’s Fiction These books focus on women’s life experience that are marketed to female readers. Many times these are protagonist experiences that women can relate to. So far she has closed down the independent shoe shops, coerced every shoe designer in town to come and work at her massive shoe factory and forced almost everyone to wear her nasty, clumpy, uncomfortable wedges. Oh, and she has made slippers illegal. Detective and Mystery The plot is primarily a crime or a puzzling situation, or circumstance that needs to be solved.The girls loved it, they begged for an extra chapter each night, and not just to put off going to sleep… there were some great cliffhangers and I often agreed. We all enjoyed the whimsical sketches, true to Liz Pichon’s artistic style and the plot was clever and not as transparent as you’d expect from a children's book. 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. Step up to the challenge . . . win or shoes! Meet Ruby and Bear. Their dad has just invented the most amazing thing ever — flying shoes! But his horrible boss Wendy Wedge knows that entering flying shoes will guarantee the Golden Shoe Award, and she will do anything to win the trophy. Ruby and Bear must outwit a bully, infiltrate a shady company, and rescue their dad all while keeping the shoes hidden. This can only mean one thing. It’s . . . shoe wars! The brand new, laugh-out-loud, spectacular stand-alone story from multi-million copy bestselling author and illustrator Liz Pichon. Praise for Liz Pichon’s Shoe Wars: Meet Ruby and Bear. Their dad has just invented the most amazing thing ever -- flying shoes! But his horrible boss Wendy Wedge knows that entering flying shoes will guarantee the Golden Shoe Award, and she will do anything to win the trophy.

The Nottinghill Carnival takes central stage in this story about families, memories and the power of dance and festivals. Author Yaba Badoe tells... 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). 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. 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). 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.

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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. 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. 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. Teenagers can also be able to consume this book without it being too easy. I think that's what I liked most about this book; it wasn't too easy nor hard. The book is also illustrated and I loved the illustrations. Oh, btw, was that Tom Gates near the end with the award show starting?

https://d3ddkgxe55ca6c.cloudfront.net/assets/t1602692252/a/96/b0/shoewars-activitysheets-rgb-1971635.pdfAll 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. Meet Ruby and Bear and Ivor, the first two are kids and brother/sister and the last one is their dad who is an amazing inventor and shoemaker. Really, this guy can make anything! But he is under contract with one of the worst people in the world and the one who controls the town, Wendy Wedge. There is a big competition coming and things are getting quite hairy with each day. And more fun and more exciting and more wow. 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. 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.