A thorough going-over of the sport, ideal for soccer newbies interested in jumping in.
A former professional player offers a primer on the beautiful game’s players and support staff.
Illustrated with scenes of racially diverse but generic figures in active poses, Yankey’s book opens with a historical timeline that takes the sport to the Women’s World Cup in 2023 and makes mention of Olympic and Paralympic soccer. Her approach in general is to start at the very beginning—so, for example, she advises readers bent on being a star to watch matches, join a local team, listen to coaches, and develop confidence. From there, on the way to a concluding gallery of less common jobs, from agent and box office worker to team chef, the author provides quick descriptions of what players at each position do on the pitch (and in between matches), takes readers into the locker room, and describes kicking techniques, game rules, and soccer vocabulary. Related occupations include field officials and media commentators, among them “players-turned-pundits.” The tone is a bit dry, but along with giving men’s and women’s soccer roughly equal time in both the narrative and the visuals, this overview closes with suggestions for ways of getting involved in playing—or watching as the 2026 World Cup kicks off in June.
A thorough going-over of the sport, ideal for soccer newbies interested in jumping in. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9798887772172
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly laudatory.
The iconic animator introduces young readers to each “happy place” in his life.
The tally begins with his childhood home in Marceline, Missouri, and climaxes with Disneyland (carefully designed to be “the happiest place on Earth”), but the account really centers on finding his true happy place, not on a map but in drawing. In sketching out his early flubs and later rocket to the top, the fictive narrator gives Ub Iwerks and other Disney studio workers a nod (leaving his labor disputes with them unmentioned) and squeezes in quick references to his animated films, from Steamboat Willie to Winnie the Pooh (sans Fantasia and Song of the South). Eliopoulos incorporates stills from the films into his cartoon illustrations and, characteristically for this series, depicts Disney as a caricature, trademark mustache in place on outsized head even in childhood years and child sized even as an adult. Human figures default to white, with occasional people of color in crowd scenes and (ahistorically) in the animation studio. One unidentified animator builds up the role-modeling with an observation that Walt and Mickey were really the same (“Both fearless; both resourceful”). An assertion toward the end—“So when do you stop being a child? When you stop dreaming”—muddles the overall follow-your-bliss message. A timeline to the EPCOT Center’s 1982 opening offers photos of the man with select associates, rodent and otherwise. An additional series entry, I Am Marie Curie, publishes simultaneously, featuring a gowned, toddler-sized version of the groundbreaking physicist accepting her two Nobel prizes.
Blandly laudatory. (bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2875-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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