It's
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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at
and #IMWAYR day
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September 2nd 2025 by Sourcebooks Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss
Leo Doyle and his younger sister Ginny are being raised in Ohio by their father after their mother's death. The mother had been a teacher and had benefits, but the father is a carpenter who does not always get enough work, so the family is struggling. Leo plays for a YMCA soccer team, and when his coach has the team play the Columbus Tigers, a scout approaches Mr. Doyle about Leo's prospects. He's from the London Dragons, and offers Leo a spot at their summer training camp. There will be about ten players out of 200 who will be chosen to attend the regular academy and be groomed to be Dragon players. Hearing that $50,000 is involved if he can get into the academy, Leo wants to go in order to help his family. His aunt agrees to pay for his airline ticket, but he must go alone. Leaving behind his friends and video games, Leo heads for London, meeting an older player, Tig, on the plane. Tig has some good advice on avoiding jet lag that Leo ignores. He takes a huge nap, then eats a lot of junk food and stays up until 4 a.m. playing video games before the initial skill assessments! His roommate, Robbie, is very intense, and is surprised that Leo hasn't been on a premier or travel team or had private coaching. Other players make fun of Leo's Cincinnati FC jersey, and he runs a foul of a bully, Brock. The coach, Zepeda, is not only looking for skill, but also character, dedication, and teamwork. Leo struggles with many aspects of camp; he's uncomfortable when they switch his positions, he'd rather play video games than do extra practice, and he maintains that he plays better after a coke and a candy bar! His coach at the camp, Samantha, thinks that he has some raw talent, but needs help. Since she is dating Tig, the two set up extra practices for Leo and another player, Garika, who is from Zimbabwe. Leo tries half heartedly to practice, but is frequently late, and even gets into fights with Brock, which Coach Zapeda and the camp director do NOT like. When Samantha and Tig break up, the extra sessions stop. Leo manages to make it through various cuts to play on the "World Cup" team, but even though his team wins the game and he has several spectacular plays, he is not accepted to the full time training program. When he returns home, however, there is a surprise that leads to book two.
Strengths: Attending a soccer camp in London? Where there is all the pizza you can eat? Meeting famous coaches and players? Getting a duffle of London Dragons clothing? This is wish fulfillment at its finest for young soccer players who really think that they will beat the odds and be able to make a career out of playing soccer. Leo is a lackadaisical Every Kid who would rather play video games than see London, has no clue about nutrition, and doesn't practice all that hard, yet still gets a lot of amazing breaks. There are lots of diverse characters, descriptions of plays and games, and plenty of hanging out during the special activities the school plans, eating pizza. Since I could paste a soccer ball on an old fashioned phone book, and some of my students would probably check it out, I will buy a copy of the first book.
Weaknesses: This was over 300 pages long, and I'm not sure how this will go over with my students who struggle to work their way through Jake Maddox or Fred Bowen books. It's great to see that this is a series, but if all the books are this long, it will be a hard sell. This needed a lot more editing. I'd be curious to see how this edition compares with the self published one. I would have preferred to see Leo mature as a character (and perhaps learn a little about nutrition!) than seeing him fighting with Brock or texting his friends back home.
What I really think: While I will buy the first book, I'm going to hold off on the second until I see how the first is received. I wish this were more like Fabbri's Back of the Net series, which my students devour. That series of six books has illustrations, and the books are just over 100 pages.
What I really think: While I will buy the first book, I'm going to hold off on the second until I see how the first is received. I wish this were more like Fabbri's Back of the Net series, which my students devour. That series of six books has illustrations, and the books are just over 100 pages.
September 2nd 2025 by Sourcebooks Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss
Leo returns to London to train with the Lewisham Knights U14 team, and one of the coaches is Samantha, with whom he worked at the Dragons' camp. Another face from the past is Brock, who doesn't treat Leo as badly as he once did. Coach Purcell is very exacting, and has a lot of rules that Leo finds hard to follow, so he ends up doing a lot of running and exercises as punishment. There's also Coach Luca, who oversees the dorms, Otto, a player from Hungary, Riley, Caden, and a number of other players. The Knights are not doing well, so Coach Purcell comes down even harder on the players. He doesn't appreciate Leo's innovative tactics, so often does not play him. At one point, Leo is so frustrated that he asks the coach what he is doing wrong so that he can improve his playing, but the coach thinks he is asking for special treatment. Even Samantha is not able to help, and the team is not able to come together to win games. Eventually, Leo approaches teammate Sami, whose father owns the Knights, and asks if he can get his father to come and watch a game. There's an incident when Taye, the goalie, is hurt, and Leo and Samantha go to a venue to play a pick up game and recruit JoJo, a girl who has even less formal soccer training than Leo. During a match with the Dragons, Sami's father does come to watch, and witnesses Coach Purcell's negative treatment of the players. He is fired, and Samantha is made the head coach instead. Sami's father announces that not only with the U14 program continue, but the Knights will be playing in the Tournament of Champions. The third book in this series will be available on January 6, 2026.
Strengths: This is the best kind of wish fulfillment for readers who think that they are good enough to be scouted by premier league teams and have careers as soccer players. While Leo has to train hard, there's still time for him to eat a lot of pizza and play video games with his friends. He even gets to go back to the States to see his family from time to time. Samantha is a good character, and it was interesting to see how the team accepted JoJo. It's hard to find soccer books; the closest comparison to this is Klass' 2015 Losers Take All, which lacks the premier training. Feinstein's 2017 Backfield Boys comes closer, but with a prestigious US football training academy.
Weaknesses: As a former coach, I did not find Leo to be an appealing character because of his constant refrain of "He won't let me play my game" and his lack of discipline. He's forever doing amazing things in pick up games, but doesn't always bring those skills to the games he plays with the Knights. Coach Purcell's methods were not good, but I don't think he had those methods because he was OLD. Leo needs to learn a LOT more about teamwork. It will be interesting to see if he grows up and becomes a better teammate in the next four books.
What I really think: Soccer books are so popular that I will purchase the first book in this series, and will purchase the second if there is enough interest in the first. This book is over 300 pages, like the first one.
Weaknesses: As a former coach, I did not find Leo to be an appealing character because of his constant refrain of "He won't let me play my game" and his lack of discipline. He's forever doing amazing things in pick up games, but doesn't always bring those skills to the games he plays with the Knights. Coach Purcell's methods were not good, but I don't think he had those methods because he was OLD. Leo needs to learn a LOT more about teamwork. It will be interesting to see if he grows up and becomes a better teammate in the next four books.
What I really think: Soccer books are so popular that I will purchase the first book in this series, and will purchase the second if there is enough interest in the first. This book is over 300 pages, like the first one.
November 18, 2025 by Peachtree
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Leo and his friends try out for the Newport Raiders high school team. Leo would like to be a wide receiver, since he's a bigger kid, but realizes that a lot of people want that position. His parents, both child psychologists, are a little concerned about him playing football, because of the risk of injury, but just admonish him to be careful. His friend Ginny plays on the high school flag football team, and is trying to get Leo and his friend Hank and Sebby to join, but they want to be on the regular team. Leo finds that he is having trouble catching passes even with special gloves, so isn't too surprised when he gets moved to special teams and is the main kick returner. He still wants to be able to score touch downs, and he finds out that there are lots of different ways that players like Deion Sanders were still able to score for their teams. Reading Bowen's own Gridiron: Stories from 100 Years of Football also provides Leo with examples that make him feel better about his position.
Bowen's sports books are unbelievably popular with my students, especially the football and basketball titles, so I will buy two copies of this. I was a little disappointed that this was so heavy on description of plays that there wasn't as much of a plot as other Bowen titles, but we still get great representation of girls in sports with Ginny on the flag football team. Since my students like the descriptions more than I do (since I haven't seen a football game since 1974, they don't make much sense to me!), this will be a big hit. There is a great chapter at the end about historical players on special teams.
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