A very eye opening read for children! "Happy Like Soccer" is about a girl who plays soccer and notices that her opponents soccer team is a little nicer than hers. She longs for her aunt to make one of her soccer games, but her aunt can never get off of work. Her aunt is finally off and can attend the game, but it rains. The game in cancelled. Sierra eventually builds up the courage to ask her coach to move a gave in their neighborhood so it could be easier for her aunt to attend! This book really opens up the readers eyes to diversity. That you never know people's struggles and that sometimes kids notice more than adults may think! Very insightful read. ( )

Happy Like Soccer is a story of a little girl who notices immediately the difference between the field she plays soccer at, and the field that her team plays soccer at across town- one is nice with families everywhere on soft blankets, drinking cokes and cheering players on, and one isn't really welcoming, doesn't have any families on soft blankets, or anybody cheering her on. I think I'd definitely use this book to introduce my students to racial diversity! I would probably ask if they noticed anything in particular about her field vs. the team one (in the book the field she plays at with her team is in color, where hers is shaded/kind of black and white on the pages). I feel a lot of students who don't have involved parents or don't come from cookie-cutter homes may be able to relate to the little girl in this story because her aunt has to work and can never make it across town to the nice fields, and that leaves the character in the book feeling alone and sad. In the end when the game is moved to her neighborhood field, people cheer her on, families come, and her aunt can be there. She says in the story "for real I am flying!" and it warms my heart. Lots of kids can find common ground in this story, and I love the happy ending! ( )

Sierra plays on a soccer team for a neighborhood with a higher social class then her own. She lives in an apartment, and longs for her aunt's job to allow her just one Saturday off to make her soccer game. Sierra knows her aunt's position, so she take matters into her own hands to get her aunt to her last soccer game. Sierra struggles at the beginning to talk to her coach about what she feels, but in the end she becomes brave enough to talk to him. This is a great story for children. Children sometimes don't realize we are not all fortunate. This story teaches a sweet lesson about how you can make things work, no matter your social class. I really like this story and I think this book is a necessity to my future classroom library. ( )

Sierra plays on a girls' soccer team based in a nicer neigborhood than her own. She loves playing soccer but wishes her hard-working aunt could get time off work to see her play. Her aunt's boss finally gives her an afternoon off to watch Sierra but rain cancels the game. Sierra works up her courage to ask the coach if the team can play a game in her neighborhood so her aunt can more easily attend. Sierra's sense of ownership and her courage in asserting her wishes is gently and realistically depicted. ( )

Nice story of a child's love for family and her efforts to solve a problem. ( )