A story of food banks and grinding poverty – for young children
Whether in A Christmas Carol or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, poverty has long been a motif in children’s fiction. But in recent years, there has been a more direct approach to the subject, with writers setting out to teach readers about the reality of modern-day financial hardship.
Among the more striking examples is It’s a No-Money Day (2019) by Kate Milner, a picture book aimed at children as young as three, which tells the story of a girl whose mother is relying on food banks: “There’s no more cereal, so I have the last piece of toast. Luckily Mum isn’t hungry.”
The Wrong Shoes, an affecting story by Tom Percival, takes a similarly head-on approach. “THIS IS NO FAIRY TALE,” we’re warned at the outset by our young narrator, Will, whose father has been unemployed since he was injured while working on a building site. (“It was all cash in hand, so there’s been no sick pay, no insurance payout – no nothing.”) Will’s mother lives elsewhere with a new partner, and Will and his father rely on food banks and benefits.
Will’s narration is stoically cheerful, but much of the story is about the hardships that he and his father endure. They seldom turn on the hob, and cannot afford sugar for their tea nor new pairs of shoes: “There’s a split in the sole of my shoes, right on the ball of my foot, like a little mocking mouth that opens and closes each time I take a step. And what does that mean when it rains? You’ve guessed it – it means a wet foot!”
Will is teased at school – “Pretty much everyone rips it out of me. Mainly because of the shoes” – but the classroom is nonetheless preferable to home: “It’s warm and dry there, and, I tell you what, it’s pretty much winter now and our flat is freezing!” The situation begins to look even bleaker when his father is threatened by a loan shark, and Will is confronted by a temptation that will put his seemingly incorruptible character to its fiercest test.
Percival’s previous books include the bestselling Big Bright Feeling picture-book series, aimed at helping pre-school children deal with issues such as anxiety and anger. While this story is for readers of eight-plus, the lessons are just as clearly spelled out. When his best friend is given a new pair of trainers, Will merely says: “It’s not Cameron’s fault that he gets all this stuff – just like it’s not my fault that I don’t. It’s just the way things are”. Readers might have reached that conclusion on their own. But Will is a convincing and touching narrator, whose story will affect every reader – and deserves to be told.
The Wrong Shoes is published by Simon & Schuster at £12.99. To order your copy for £10.99, call 0808 196 6794 or visit Telegraph Books
