The Blue Shoe

October 26, 2009
Townley's (The Red Thread
) overly complicated fantasy stars 13-year-old Hap Barlo, a smart, nimble-fingered cobbler's apprentice who is also an unwilling thief. The slippery story line is founded on a mysterious bejeweled blue shoe in a cobbler's window in the town of Aplanap, but the action soon begins to alternate between Aplanap and a prison in a faraway mine, where the prisoners (in a plot element reminiscent of Holes
) daily dig deeper toward some unknown purpose. The enormous cast of characters includes a pompous mayor and his greedy wife, a good-hearted cobbler and his hungry dog, an evil prison warden, a feisty, fearless girl with a crush on Hap, and numerous, hard-to-distinguish Aukis, a blue-skinned, human-hating race with an almost-human language (in which Hap is fluent—a skill that proves crucial). GrandPré's (the Harry Potter series) b&w illustrations create an appropriately furtive ambience and partner well with the tongue-in-cheek narrative voice. The convoluted plot culminates in a predictable frantic battle scene in the mine, but the mystery of the blue shoe and other aspects of the saga are not fully resolved until the story returns to Aplanap. Ages 8–12.

December 1, 2009
Gr 4-6-This tale begins with a mysterious blue-jeweled shoe and centers on the adventures of 13-year-old Hap Barlow, who gets imprisoned and is part of a slave revolt, and ends with the mystery of the shoe solved and a lesson on how not to mistreat the Earth. Elflike creatures called Aukis once lived freely on Mount Xexnax, but now it is a prison set up by humans and holds the lawbreakers of Aplanap along with captured Aukis. Hap and some Auki warriors must unite in order for the slave revolt to succeed but cultural twists and turns complicate this mission, including the necessity of working with Ulf, an Auki who is married to a human. GrandPré's occasional, detailed blue illustrations are well placed and assist in keeping readers' attention focused. "The Blue Shoe" is a delightful fantasy that brings forth the topics of diversity and ecology in a way that does not have a happy ending but one with a solution in progress."Nancy D. Tolson, Mitchell College, New London, CT"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2009
Grades 4-6 In this fun, whimsical fairy tale, 13-year-old Hap Barlo, once a happy boy living with his beekeeper father in Aplanap, is orphaned when the villages cruel mayor imprisons Haps father on Mount Xexnax. Hap is then taken in by Grel, the villages humble shoemaker. In a twist of fate, the mayor accuses Hap of stealing a stone from Grels famous jewel-encrusted shoe, and Hap is sentenced to hard labor in the same mines as his father. With the help of his friend Sophia, Hap meets a network of embittered prisoners who are being forced to dig for a mysterious blue diamond. He learns that the prisoners plan to revolt against the mayor and that the leader of the revolution is none other than his dad. The good-versus-evil plotline, dynamic cast of characters (including a one-eyed beggar girl and a blue troll who hates humans), light romance between Hap and Sophia, and copious amounts of magic and intrigue will be a hit with a wide range of readers, both male and female.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2010
Hap Barlo is apprentice to a poor shoemaker. A mysterious figure commissions a blue-jewel-encrusted shoe, setting off a chain of events leading to Hap's arrest and exile to Xexnax Mountain. There he's reunited with his father and leads a prisoners' coup. GrandPre's shadowy blue illustrations and the book's thoughtful design (including text in blue ink) contribute to this satisfying fairy tale.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)