What Parents Should Know
Kids -- especially those whose tastes run counter to the
herd -- will quickly buy into the convincing school setting and
situations in this witty story. Clever dialogue and a
tongue-in-cheek depiction of a group of independent thinkers
united in confronting community pressure.
Common Sense Media Review
The agony of playing! The thrill of defeat! Taking on the
sacred cow of school sports, Avi slyly postulates a close-knit
band of radical thinkers who have better things to do with
their time than play soccer, and then imagines what might
happen to their unlikely, unwilling team in a hometown where
athletics is all.
It's all about reverse psychology. The triumph is that it works -- for the central characters but even a little for the legion of tormentors around them. With a light touch but a sure sense of what matters, Avi creates a funny story about kids outside the in-crowd -- with almost no allies. .
His caricatures of parents and school administrators are
pointed enough to resonate with kids, but not so sharp they're
harsh. In the darkest hour for the eleven uninterested players,
when no one seems to understand, the reader is entirely
engaged, as frustrated and annoyed as the teammates themselves.
And as the book reaches its climax, Ed raises its most
important point: " ... I don't like sports. I'm not good at it.
I don't enjoy it. So I say, so what? I mean, if Saltz here
writes a stinko poem -- and he does all the time -- do they
yell at him? When was the last time Mr. Tillman came around and
said, 'Saltz, I
believe in your being a poet!' "
"Never," said Saltz.
"Yeah," said Radosh. "How come sports is so
important?"
As he sends up the relentless image of the all-around kid, Avi keeps his criticism good-humored by relying on the realistic voice of his young protagonists, and reasonable by trusting their honesty. This book goes a long way toward airing a widespread but overlooked issue.
From the Book:
"What are we supposed to do? Cry? Sulk? ... Dad, we
didn't want to be on a team. We
had to be. We stink. So what?"
He shook his head. "That's being a quitter."
"How can you accuse me of quitting when I didn't want to join? If a guy breaks out of a torture chamber, is he a quitter? I mean, I do want to quit. We all do."
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
