Back of the Net

When the World Cup soccer games were being played, I had a lot of 6th grade boys who were enjoying the nonfiction books I had recently purchased about different soccer teams, but they read through them so quickly. I wanted something a little longer for them, and this series looked good. I bought them without reading them first, which I rarely do, but I don't regret it. 

These are somewhat similar to longer Jake Maddox books, or a bit like Fred Bowen, but they have a high interest/low lever twist: the boys are in high school. They drive cars and are scouted by colleges. Each story deals with a different problem that one of the boys on the team has, often trouble with anger management or a family difficulty. They are fairly exciting; several involve encounters with police, reckless behavior (that has serious consequences). I think the boys will like them; I've already checked out the first one to a boy who saw me reading it during testing. (Disclaimer: I scan the room at the end of every page. I pay attention. Testing is serious, serious business!)

They did amuse me, though, because they were sometimes SOOOOO dramatic. A tiny bit cheesy. But if they get my students reading because they feel a bit edgy, all to the good. Not surprisingly, my reviews on Goodreads were the only ones! 

Fabbri, Gary and Brown, Alan.  Back of the Net series

Published December 15th 2022 by Claw (Abdo)

Library Copies

Making the Grade (#1): Aiden loves to play soccer and is good at it, but his season is in jeopardy due to his inattentiveness in class and his poor performance. He thinks that his teacher is unreasonable, but his coach backs up the dictum that Aiden must improve his school work or he will be off the team. Things are a little rough at home; his single mother works long hours, and Aiden often has to care for his younger sister, but the mother does check his grades. The problem? Aiden has been breaking into her phone and deleting school messages, so she doesn't know how bad things are until there is a school meeting. Aiden finally agrees to tutoring with classmate Michelle, but will he be able to turn things around? 

Perfect (#2): Enzo feels a lot of pressure to do well at soccer. His father, who is Argentinian,  thinks that he should be fast and also make the winning goals, because "no one remembers the passer". This causes Enzo to be a less than helpful teammate as he showboats during the games. His coach calls him out, but he isn't able to stop himself. He spends a lot of time thinking about the proper diet and working out at the gym, and is pretty full of himself. When his hubris causes him to miss a goal and blow a game, he realizes that he doesn't really like soccer, he just likes winning. He runs away from home after a game, runs into a man smoking on a bench, and wallows in self pity for a while. When he returns home, his parents are glad to see him but obviously are concerned. In a surprise twist, it turns out that some of this pressure is due to the fact that Enzo wets the bed, and his father isn't happy with this, either. At the end of the book, Enzo is working with a school counselor on coping strategies and doing better. 

Stand Your Ground (#3): Jackson had some problems with Enzo in the second book of this series, and continues to be a hot head on the field. His teammates try to get him to back off, but he just can't. He even fights with Coach Williams and gets red cards from the refs. Soccer is his plan to be the first person in his family to go to college, but he worries that all the refs are such jerks and get in his way. His brother Elijah is helpful, and Jackson needs all the help he can get when the police show up at his house. He had blocked a player in the game, but broken his nose, and the referee's car had been vandalized. When Elijah goes with his to the school to check out the placement of the video camera so that Jackson's deeds can go unpunished, and the two decide to grab pizza. Unfortunately, the see the defender he injured from the other team, and the two end up scrapping. The police come again, and Jackson faces discipline at school. He still gets into fights, and after a particularly brutal one that ends in him being injured, he gets help from his new friend Giana to help control his anger by understand his body's fight or flight response. 

Get on Up (#4): Manny is a good soccer player, but he has been having a lot of pain in his hands. A football player has given him some tape and showed him how to wrap his hands, but it still hurts. He takes ibuprofen and acetominophen, but very carefully follows the dosages on the package; the instructions are even included in the book. Sometimes this helps, but it often does not. He tries to self diagnose through Google and thinks he may have arthritis. It makes it hard to play games, and even to concentrate on other things in life. When he passes out during a game, his mother thinks he must be dehydrated, but when he is in the hospital, he finally tells his parents about his arthritis fears. He gets tested, and the doctor confirms that Manny suffers from Lupus, an autoimmune condition. Angry that he can't play soccer, Manny goes out at night and kicks garbage cans, and runs from the police. They tackle him, he is injured, and this doesn't help. After questioning God and vandalizing his church, he eventually works with a doctor to adjust his medication and learns that if he is careful and manages his condition, he can continue to play his beloved sport. 

Size Me Up (#5): Ben is only 5'3", often a foot shorter than his competitors. He also has to deal with Mt. Pleasant High School bullies Anthon and Wayne, who like to stop Ben whenever he is trying to get somewhere and threaten to beat him up. Ben talks to Coach Williams about his chances to play college soccer, hoping it will get him away from the violence in his town. He works with Aiden and Michelle on his studies, and likes math because he can use it for soccer statistics. At one point, Ben stops Anton and Wayne from beating up a girl named Carly, but this doesn't stop the two. We know they are bad news from the ragged, sleeveless jackets they wear. At one point, the two try to knife Ben, but the chase along the streets of town ends in Anton's bloody death when he is hit by a car. Ben thinks he's safe, but Wayne shows up at his apartment building and beats him in the elevator, and Ben is saved by his stepdad, Will, who takes out Wayne with a baseball bat and holds him until the police arrive. Ben returns to the soccer field and dates Carly. 

Home Boy (#6): Kai has trouble focusing on the soccer field because there is a lot going on at home. And I mean a LOT. His parents argue a lot, but it's more than that. Kai has been in the middle of some of these arguments and has internalized a lot of his father's negative comments, so when he loses a game he plays of depressing music, like Beck's Loser, because apparently Kai is a 47 year old high school student who also listens to Queen, Chumbawumba, and Smash Mouth. Some of the parents' fights turn unintentionally violent; at one point, the father is pulling the mother but not hitting her. Kai gets in the middle and pushes the father away, which results in lots of broken glass and some blood. Kai is so upset that he drives his car really really fast on some back roads, hits and animal, and totals his car. Coach Williams takes him home because Kai refuses to talk to his parents. At Thanksgiving, the mother decides to tell the family that she has gotten a job 11 hours away, and I for one can't blame her. While things still aren't perfect, the father seems to be okay with the kids (Kai's sisters are older), and once the mother is out of the picture, things settle down. The Mt. Pleasant team does well at their last game, with the boys all playing well together and doing their best for the long suffering and very  understanding Coach Williams.