I really liked this book aimed at children. The illustrations are numerous and are not the usual tired old images of star players; they are drawn from a number of sources, including the the collections of the National Football Museum and cover every aspect of the game, e.g. balls, caps, games, badges, comics, gloves, old stretchers etc etc. There is plenty on skills and players in text and image too. ( )

I loved this informational text! This book tells you everything you need to know about the great sport of soccer. I liked that it incorporated the roots of the game; who knew that soccer originated in ancient China?! I also liked the organized pages. Every page was devoted to a separate aspect of the game including: foot skills, injury procedures, tactics, and goal-tending. I appreciated that the book focused on all teams rather than just the USA soccer team. Players from all countries were featured and admired for their skills. I liked the big visuals in order to see the intricate details such as the sewn, leather soccer ball. The one thing I disliked was the cluttered pages. It was organized very well, but there was too much to look at. You have to focus in on every fun fact, visual, heading, etc. to comprehend the text. The main idea of this book is to educate readers about the rules, regulations, history and procedures of soccer. ( )

I liked this book for two main reasons. First, I liked how the writing was so descriptive and how the book covered many areas of soccer. For example, the book opened up with the history of soccer, and then covered the laws of the game, tactics, soccer outfits, soccer skills, the referee, as well as many other areas of soccer. Each subject area of soccer was covered in depth. For example, the sentence “the game that has captured the imaginations of people all over the world was developed in England and Scotland in the 19th century”, gives a descriptive and clear explanation of the history of soccer and where it began. Secondly, the illustrations were so vivid, which made the book very rich and powerful. For example, when the book was teaching the laws of soccer there was a picture of a soccer field with all the players on the field. Each player on the field had an arrow pointed to them with a description of what they do on the field and the position that they play. These types of illustrations in the book made it easy to understand each concept. With that said, this is a great book to show a child who wants to start learning and playing the game of soccer.
I’m personally a big soccer player and have been playing the game since the age of four. There was a surplus of enriching information about soccer that I never knew before. This book gives an individual the opportunity to be exposed to such meaningful information about soccer. Overall, there really wasn’t a main idea, but if you want to learn the game of soccer or love the game of soccer this is a must read. ( )

796.3

796.3