Simple, literate soccer stories that just might turn soccer fans into readers.
This volume in the Kick! series kicks off with Tessa Dobbs finishing her last season of high school soccer and wondering what the future holds for her.
Tessa is a good player. But how good? It’s not easy to know playing in a small rural town in the middle of nowhere. But when her best friend, Ellen, says her older sister, Sadie, might be able to connect her with Coach Miller from nearby Yates University, Tessa is excited. The coach comes to a game, sees Tessa punch in a game-winning penalty kick, and things are looking good. But status-seeking Sadie also wants Tessa to pledge the Omega Phi sorority and ditch her current boyfriend, Ben, deemed not cool enough for Sadie’s crowd. When Tessa does, indeed, get accepted to Yates, does she owe Sadie? She knows Sadie is capable of making her life miserable if she doesn’t break up with Ben, but why should she have to do that? For a hi-lo novel targeted at reluctant middle and high school readers, the conflict is realistic, nuanced, and not resolved too simplistically. Plenty of soccer action, told in a zippy present tense, will appeal to the intended audience. The series, with installments by different authors, follows the formula of soccer action wrapped around a central conflict. In Israel Keats’ The Heir, Rob Briggs must decide what’s more important, soccer or the Battle of the Bands competition. Malik, in Chris Kreie’s The Captain, must carry his team on in the wake of a cheating scandal at school. And in The Natural, also by Kreie, Kamal’s position on the team is threatened by a talented newcomer. Reluctant readers will not be so reluctant after The Recruit; in fact, they’re likely to gobble up the entire series and become readers in the process, ready, perhaps, for more sophisticated fare such as Kwame Alexander’s Booked (2016) and Edward Bloor’s Tangerine (1997).
Simple, literate soccer stories that just might turn soccer fans into readers. (Fiction. 11-18)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5415-0033-4
Page Count: 108
Publisher: Darby Creek
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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