Ball Hog: Soccer Showoff by Jake Maddox and Margaret Gurevich

Gina Gozalez noticed the sign as soon as she approached River City Middle School--HOME OF THE RIVER CITY RAIDERS!


Gina smiled. That could be my new team, she thought. I could be a Raider!

Then her stomach tightened. River City Middle School was at least twice the size of her old school.

All I have to do is make it through the day, Gina thought. Then I can go to soccer tryouts.

After school, as she gathers with the others on the pitch, Gina is feeling lucky. The other girls are friendly, and Rachel and Lara admit that they need some new players to improve their record over last year's. Gina had been a star on her old school's team, and she hopes that if she does her best, she can make the team at River City.

Coach Grant sets pairs of girls to work on passing, dribbling, and shooting, and Gina and her partner Rachel get a special "Nice work!" from the coach when Gina's strong kicks get past the goalie. Gina knows that she is a terrible goalie, and sure enough, when it's her turn she misses most of Rachel's shots. But when the selections for the team go up the next day Gina's name is on the list. Gina is sure the Coach Grant noticed her special scoring abilities, and she can't wait to have her chance to show off what she can do as a shooter.

But in the first games, Gina doesn't get many opportunities to score. It seem like every time they take the ball downfield, one of her teammates bobbles a pass or has the ball stolen by the opponents before they have it in range for Gina to score.

Gina was frustrated. All this teamwork is slowing us down, she thought.

I wish I could just run down the field myself and score a goal.

And with her team behind in the second half, Gina gets the ball and has to make a choice.

The Tiger's defenders were closing in. From the corner of her eye, Gina saw that Lara was wide open.

From the sidelines, Coach Grant yelled, "Pass! Pass!"

But Gina took aim and kicked the ball. It curved toward the goal and sailed into the back of the net. Score!

If I can just stay on the ball, we'll definitely win, thought Gina.

And the Raider's get the win, thanks to Gina's play, but the others don't seem as excited as they should. Becca complains that Gina is not the only one on the team, and instead of praising her for saving the game, without a smile Coach reminds her that soccer is a team sport. What is wrong with these people? Didn't they want to win? Gina thinks.

At the next game, Gina is determined to try to score on her own. Despite two of her teammates signaling that they are open, Gina tries to take the ball all the way down field. This time, however, the defender steals the ball just as she gets ready to kick, and the Mariners get the goal.

Gina is benched.

"This team isn't about one person!" Coach said.

One of the significant values of team sports is teamwork, and that is the theme of Soccer Show-Off (Jake Maddox Girl Sports Stories) (Capstone Books) No matter how good she may be, Gina gets it that being a ball hog doesn't pay off in the long run--in more ways than one. Gurevich paces this sports story well, with equal time for gameplay description and personal relationships within the group. Illustrated by Katie Wood's full-page black-and-white vignettes, with a glossary and field position diagram and descriptions of soccer positions, this book offers an introduction to playing the game for young players with special attention to the indescribable essence of teamwork.

Becca sighed. "We're all on the team because, duh, we all love soccer!
"If we win, we do it together."

Gina laughed. "And if we lose, we do that together too."

Wrong-Way Alex: Soccer Surprise by Emma Carlson Berne

Moving is hard.

Alex had lots of friends back in Florida, and she was the star forward for her soccer team. Now she's halfway across the country in Texas. She has one possible friend, Lin, but the other girls on the Strikers team have known each other forever, and her new coach puts her on defense where she has no chance to score. Still Alex tries hard. Then in her first game, something happens.

Without thinking, Alex fell back into the role of a forward. She intercepted the ball. In A quick, one-two dribble. Alex ran for the goal.

The net was wide open. Alex booted the ball into the goal.

SMACK! Nothing was as satisfying as that sound of her foot against the ball.

The ref's whistle blared. "Offsides, penalty! Goal for the Hornets!

"I guess you forgot which team you were playing for," Brooke said to Alex.

She had really screwed up. Alex had scored a goal--for the other team. It happens to everybody, she knows, but Alex is new in Jacksonville, Texas, new to playing defense, new to not being the star forward on her old team, and she is almost speechless. She stammers out a few words about being new to her position after the game, but her teammates stare out the ground and turn away silently.

The fact that her teammates, even Lin, won't even look at her, makes her feel even worse. And the cold-shoulder treatment continues at practice the next day, and at the next game no one passes the ball to her, not even her only new friend. Lin. On the bench, Alex almost loses it. Stifling her tears, she gets up and runs from the field and halfway across town before she stops.

Finally, her sobs slowed. In the reflection of a store window she sees Coach Mike approach. He sits down beside her.

"Alex, I bet it wasn't easy, moving here in the middle of the year and leaving your friends. It may be selfish of me, but I was glad you joined the Strikers. You're a great midfielder. Tall, strong, and quick. I need you at defense."

"But Coach, I don't know if I can play if everyone hates me! And isn't it too late to apologize to the team?" Alex confesses.

"It's never too late. Mistakes happen. But it would make everyone feel better if you just said those two magic words."

It's hard for Alex to face the hostility of her team, but Coach is right. Saying "I'm sorry," breaks the ice, in Emma Carlson Berne's Soccer Surprise (Jake Maddox Girl Sports Stories) (Capstone Press). The author takes one sports event, a common but serious mistake that affects the whole team, and skillfully explores the social situation and the feeling experienced by all involved. Everyone screws up sometime, and being a team member requires a particular set of skills outside playing ability itself--not hogging the ball, admitting failures, and forgiving mistakes by others. This book, part of the Jake Maddox Sports Stories series, ably explains the emotions experienced by a new player and by the rest of the team when a significant mistake is made. Kids who love soccer--or basketball or baseball or other such sports--will find this beginning chapter book easy reading and will probably find themselves sometime on both sides of that situation, making this book good vicarious experience for sports lovers.

Goal! The Soccer Fence by Phil Bildner

Twice a month, my sister and me rode the bus with Mama to a different part of Johannesburg where she worked. My sister usually spent all day in the garden, raking and planting. I spent all day with my face pressed to the fence, my eyes glued to the boys chasing after the black-and-white leather ball.

"Hey!" I called. "Hey!"

But not a single boy ever looked my way as they raced up and back along the green carpet of grass.

"One day," I whispered. "I'm going to play on a field just like that. One day real soon."

But at the height of the apartheid years in South Africa, boys of different races didn't play together. Separately they practice the same skills, the same game, and separately they dream of playing for their national team.

Time passes. Nations place sanctions against South Africa and eventually President de Klerk ends apartheid. Nelson Mandela is released from prison and then elected president. Mandela recognizes the power of sports to bring his nation together, and he sponsors a multiracial South African Football Association.

But old customs don't change easily. The boy still watches through that fence. Once he retrieves a ball that goes over the fence with his best bicycle kick.

"Can I play?" I called.

Not a single boy looked my way.

But the South African team Bafana Befana begins to win and at last they meet Tunisia in the final two, playing for the Africa Cup. Players of both races score to win the game.

Standing on my seat, I spotted the blond boy standing on his seat in the next section.

He saw me and raised his fist. I raised mine back.

The blond boy and I led the snaking line of frenzied fans in and out of the aisles as we celebrated the first championship soccer trophy we'd ever won.L

"Something there is that doesn't love a wall," wrote Robert Frost, and Phil Bildner's The Soccer Fence: A story of friendship, hope, and apartheid in South Africa (Penguin Books, 2014) tells the story of one fence, his symbol of the wall of Apartheid, not just in law but in the game that represents the aspirations of a nation. Youngsters who know the experience of sports will easily understand the theme of this simple book, the joy of coming together as a team in a game they all love. The realistic artwork of Jesse Joshua Watson illustrates the love of the game and the desire to join as the main character watches hopefully through a fence, and kids will sense the meaning of the metaphor of the open gate in that fence as together both boys join the game.

For readers outside South Africa, Bildner appends a historical note, "A Little Bit of History," a list of print and online sources, and a timeline of Apartheid.

Switch Dribbler: It's Hard to Dribble with Your Feet by Val Priebe

I'm sitting with my friends, Josh and Tyler. Tyler plays basketball. He is the team's best shooter.

I play basketball, too. I'm known for my dribbling skills. I keep total control of the ball, no matter what.

"Carmen, we asked you if you were going to go out for a fall sport," Tyler says.

"She's going out for soccer," says a voice behind me.

Huh? Lynsey, Carmen's best friend,  sits down and starts the hard sell to get her to join the Victory School soccer team. She makes it sound like a good idea, being a teammate with her best friend. Mom and Dad agree that it is a good idea to try out new things, and together they fill out her permission slip.

But tying on her first set of cleats, Carmen begins to get cold feet. She's really good at dribbling a basketball--but that is with her hands. Can she learn to dribble a soccer ball between her feet in time to help the school team? After all, Lynsey has been playing soccer since she was three. Of course, it seems easy to her!

At her first practice, trying to control the ball with her feet feels all wrong to Carmen. And although her coach is encouraging, while she is in the locker room after practice she overhears two girls on the team talking.

"I don't know why they let new people join teams anyway." one girl is saying.

It's not like we came to Victory to try new sports!"

I try not to let what I heard bother me. I just have to work extra hard.

And Carmen's extra practice pays off when she is called in to sub for one of the stars and manages to dribble downfield and kick a goal in the first game.

As Carmen learns in Val Priebe's It's Hard to Dribble with Your Feet (Sports Illustrated Kids Victory School Superstars) (Sports Illustrated Kids/Stone Arch Book), it can be good to try new things. After all, soccer is just a game, and the thing is to have fun playing it.

Cleat Queen! Kylie Jean, Soccer Queen by Marci Peschke

EVER SINCE I WAS A BITTY BABY I HAVE WANTED TO BE AN HONEST BEAUTY QUEEN. I EVEN KNOW THE WAVE.

Pretty girls in Texas have a tradition of trying out for that beauty queen tiara. But things are about to change!

WHEN I WAKE UP, IT'S A PERFECT SPRINGTIME SATURDAY MORNING.

THE BEST PART OF THIS SATURDAY MORNING IS THAT MOMMA HAS A SURPRISE FOR ME!

But guessing, begging, and snooping don't work. With her bulldog Ugly Brother and her "best cousin" Lucy along, Momma drives to the local college. The surprise is that they get to watch the collegiate lady Buccaneers play soccer. Suddenly Kylie Jean has a new aspiration--to play soccer just like the college girl who scored the last goal. And when she goes for her autograph, Belle Jenkins recruits Kylie for the team she is coaching and hands her a tryout sheet and soccer camp schedule. Kylie practices all weekend. She is a little sad that her best cousin finds the game boring and won't try out, but she does help Kylie work on dribbling, and Kylie makes the team.

"I KNEW YOU'D LOVE SOCCER!" MOMMA SAYS.

Kylie befriends a new girl in town, Ana Sofia, who has just moved to Texas from Florida, and the teammates choose a name, the Tiger Lilies. Instead of ruffly dresses, fancy coiffures, and tiaras, Kylie Jean's new fashion includes shorts, jerseys, long socks and cleated shoes.

And at the first game the next week, Kylie gets lucky and scores the winning goal. She just knows she's on her way to being a Soccer Queen. But in the second game, with the score tied, things take a bad turn.

I'M ABOUT TO SHOOT THE BALL, BUT JUST AS I PULL MY LEG BACK TO KICK IT, A PLAYER FROM THE OTHER TEAM STEALS THE BALL AWAY, SHE DRIBBLES THE LENGTH OF THE FIELD AND SHOOTS A POWERFUL SHOT PAST OUR GOALIE.

I FEEL AWFUL. I'LL NEVER BE A GREAT PLAYER LIKE COACH BELLE. TEARS STING MY EYES, BUT I'M NOT GOING TO CRY. SOCCER PLAYERS SHOULD BE TOUGH.

And it's good that Kylie learns that lesson, because in the soccer camp playoff game, she scores with a jump and a header that wins the game. But when Kylie comes down from her leap, she lands with a crunch on one arm. It's broken, and she's off to the emergency room.

"HOW AM I GOING TO BE A SOCCER QUEEN WITH A BROKEN ARM?"

But soccer queens have to be tough, and Kylie Jean comes through smiling as bravely as any beauty queen, complete with pink cast, which Ana Sofia leads the team in signing right away, in Marci Peschki's Soccer Queen (Kylie Jean) (Capstone/Picture Window Books, 2015). Author Peschki's supplies some gameplay excitement and her text is easy enough for accomplished Grade 1 readers but includes social situations that help all primary students become familiar with the game and team dynamics. Abundant illustrations break up and extend the text, and terms such as juggle and forward are defined in the text or in a handy appended glossary, which also offers activities, a recipe for Momma's best Texas-style cookies, and a web link with pass number that give access to other books and lots of activities on the Capstone Books website, making this one a good summer choice for kids.

Playing on a team teaches kids a lot--athletic skills, of course, but also offers good role models, and a chance for learning goal-setting, teamwork, courage, how to accept both winning and losing gracefully, and the support of a strong social group that carries over to school and family life, and Soccer Queen (Kylie Jean) scores on those goals.

Making Goals: Soccer on Sunday (Magic Tree House #52) by Mary Pope Osbourne

"I wonder where we'll go today?" said Jack.

Annie began to speak in a dramatic voice, like a TV announcer."What amazing person will Jack and Annie meet today?"

Jack laughed and shook his head.

"Our lives are kind of crazy," said Annie.

"You think?" said Jack.

School's out and Jack and Annie could be sleeping late, but a familiar flash at her window had just aroused Annie.  Tiptoeing into Jack's room in the pre-dawn gloom, she shook him out of a dream,

"We have to go," she said.  "It's back."

Against the graying sky they find the Magic Tree House high  in the tall oak in the woods, with a summons from Merlin:

Now you must learn the fourth secret of greatness from one of the finest athletes of all time, Pele' the Great.

With the note they find two tickets to the final World Cup game in Mexico in 1970, along with the tiny bottle of the magic Mist of Avalon that can grant them one hour of great skill at whatever they choose, and the Ring of Truth.  Jack makes the wish and they spin back through years to the final match in Mexico City.

Jack and Annie are surprised to find that they emerge in their same shorts and tees.  It seems those haven't changed much since 1970. They also find that their pockets are full of pesos and they set out to navigate the subways and trams of the huge Mexican capital to Aztec Stadium where the final game between Brazil and Italy is to be played.  The crowds are overwhelming for the two kids from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania,  but they meet up with a big city boy named Roberto, also on his way to the match, with his birthday ticket and with his own mission--to remember everything and hurry home to tell his eight brothers and sisters everything that Pele' does. With Roberto steering them from subway to subway to trolley, they arrive with only a few minutes to spare before the game. Jack and Annie have great seats in the second row, but Roberto's seat is near to top of the stadium, barely visible.  As he bids them farewell, Jack and Annie have an idea.

"Everybody says it's the game of a lifetime," Jack said.

"Roberto! We have to trade seats," said Annie. "Because it's your birthday. If you have a good seat, you can tell our brothers and sisters and your parents all about it."

It is an amazing game, but in the huge crowd of fans around the victorious Pele' and his team, Jack and Annie can find no way to speak to the great player and learn his secret of greatness. Disappointed, they let Roberto show them the way to a bus stop near his aunt's house to catch a less-crowded ride back downtown. The three meet up with  a group of Roberto's friends playing "futbol" who invite them to join the game. When Jack and Annie and Roberto admit to each other that they are enthusiastic, but not very good players,  Jack decides that they might as well use the Mist of Avalon to make them great players for a little while. And there, as they celebrate on that muddy field in the warm drizzle of Mexico City, Annie and Jack discover the last secret of greatness, when Roberto exults "Enthusiasm is everything!" and sets the Ring of Truth to glowing brightly.

Mary Pope Osborne's latest Magic Tree House book, Magic Tree House #52: Soccer on Sunday (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) (Random House, 2014), completes Annie and Jack's Merlin Mission to discover the secrets of greatness--humility, hard work, purpose, and enthusiasm. Author Osborne obviously has shown those qualities in accomplishing fifty-two installments in this best-selling series of beginning chapter books which so successfully combine history, biography, and geography with fantasy adventure.

Veteran artist Sal Murdocca has been along for the whole ride, bringing Pope's adventuring brother and sister to life in his trademark illustrations for the many, many readers who have transitioned to independent reading through this blockbuster series. Pair this one with its nonfiction companion book, Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #29: Soccer: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #52: Soccer on Sunday (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) (Random House, 2014).

Short Subject: Bear in PINK Underwear by Todd H. Doodler

THE RED DEVILS MET AT THE FIELD, DRESSED IN THEIR RED UNIFORMS.

BEAR WAS WEARING HIS UNIFORM, AND HIS LUCKY TIGHTIE WHITIES.

BUT, WAIT A MINUTE!

THEY WEREN'T WHITE. THEY WERE....

PINK???

Even soccer stars have washing machine mishaps. Bear, tired and dirty from a hard game against the Blue Jays, forces himself to put his muddy uniform into the washer before he showers and gets set to chill after the game. But when he takes the laundry out, YIKES! His lucky tightie whities have had a close encounter with his Red Devils jersey and are now a lovely shade of-- PINK!

Soccer guys don't wear pink. He knows just what his opponents and his friends will say if he dares:

"PINK is for GIRLS!!"

But... they ARE his lucky briefs. Does Bear dare bare his bottom in public with his keister clad in pink underwear? Does he dare play without them?

Complete with a movable pull-tab device which gives readers a chance to bare Bear's secret right there on the cover, it's no surprise that Bear dares to cross the color line and take the field to score for his team in Todd H. Doodler's new second book in this series, Bear in Pink Underwear (Blue Apple Books, 2011). Fresh from the success of his Bear In Underwear, Doodler's simple text and elemental blackline and strong colored illustrations provide easy going for the emergent reader as well as storytime chuckles for the preschool set for whom the mere mention of underwear is a show stopper. BearWear may catch on everywhere!