Renick establishes straight off that ""what Sam wanted most of all was to be on the Franklin playground ball team"" and win...

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SAM DISCOVERS SOCCER

Renick establishes straight off that ""what Sam wanted most of all was to be on the Franklin playground ball team"" and win a City Championship patch to wear on his jacket when he went back to school in the fall. Then right away Sam breaks his arm in a bike accident and has to spend the summer watching soccer instead of playing baseball, which he insists is really his sport though the coach tells him he's a soccer natural and even ""General Maint,"" a truck driving handyman who pops up on cue exclaiming ""by jingo,"" keeps reminding him that it's possible to change his mind. But when Franklin wins the soccer championship, Sam is included in the awards and looking forward to next summer when he'll play for real. Competent formula plotting, hammer-handed telling, and as for the motivation--we've lived in lots of towns where the summer playground achievers are named endlessly in the local paper, but we've yet to meet a kid who considers it any big deal.

Pub Date: June 11, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 102

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1975

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