Soccer Sideline and Roohi and Nate Are Not on the Same Page

Marino, Max, Bolte, Mari and Diaz, Roman (illus.) Soccer Sideline
January 1, 2026 by Lerner Publications ™
Copy provided by the publisher

Mak Malek has to leave his friends to attend a new middle school, but is excited to be on the soccer team there. Unfortunately, the night before school starts, he has a nightmare and whacks his wrist on the nightstand. It hurts, but he doesn't want to tell his parents about it, lest they not allow him to go to practice. At the first practice with the Titans and Coach Rhime, Mak falls on his wrist, injuring it more. Teammate Dougie notices, but doesn't say anything. Mak tapes his wrist and adds Popsicle sticks as a splint, but when all of the team members have to take a turn at being the goalie, the pain from his wrist makes Mak hesitant to stop the ball. He changes to a piece of old shin guard to protect his injury, but has trouble completing an obstacle course at practice. At the first game, he feels a little better, and wearing arm warmers helps. The coach doesn't put him in because of his lack of confidence and his hesitancy, but Mak still doesn't tell anyone about the pain he is in. When he is hit in the wrist with a ball during a game, he is in a lot of pain. Dougie finally intervenes and convinces Mak to talk to his parents as well as Dougie's father, who is a doctor. It turns out that the nightstand injury was a greenstick fracture, but letting it go caused a full break. Mak will have to stop playing for six months, and won't be able to ride his BMX bike or do parkour, either. Luckily, his friends are supportive, and Coach Rhime lets him serve as a coaching assistant. 

Sports injuries are rarely talked about in middle grade literature, but they do happen frequently and deserve some attention. Mak's reluctance to tell his parents because he would miss part of the season is completely understandable. As a coach, I always kept a close eye on my cross country runners and told them to come to me if they did not feel well, but young athletes are often stubborn. It was good to see that Dougie cared about his friend enough to call him on the injury and get him help. 

The end of the book includes a short biography of Radamal Falcao, a soccer player who also had trouble with injuries. The combination of problems and descriptions of practice and games is great, and I can see this book being popular with readers who enjoyed Fabbri's Back of the Net series.

Soccer is a sport that a lot of young readers play, so this is a great purchase for all elementary school libraries, and middle school collections where there are a number of emerging readers. I've been purchasing a lot of soccer titles lately, like Gibbons' Super Sub, Maddox's Soccer Goals, and Layton's longer The Academy books. 

Kelkar, Supriya and Lerner, Jarrett. Roohi and Nate are Not on the Same Page

March 3, 2026 by Amulet Books

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Roohi is an overachiever; she's is involved in cross country team, science olympiad, Robotics Team, and the school newspaper. She has a friend group from each activity, but is struggling with her relationship with herr cross country friends after she broke her toe and had to stop running. She has a lot to deal with at home, mainly watching her three younger brothers while her father works from home and her mother is a surgeon at a local hospital. The one place she finds comforting is the library, where she eats lunch every day to avoid her friends and to talk books with the cool, rock band t shirt wearing Mrs. Sharp. She and Nate aren't friends; he's a slacker skater boy whom she feels has been rude to her, so she's rude back. Nate's parents seem to favor his older brother, Noah, "the smart one" who is off at college. His best friend is Z (or Zach), but lately the two haven't been vibing. When Nathan sees a lunchtime book club starting, he wants to join, even though his father makes snide comments that it's :"more Noah's thing" and he has to lie to Z about where he is going. Roohi is NT excited about the club, because it means she has to share her space with Miles, who loves an ogre based book series, Dao, who is on the girls' basketball team, and Troy. When everyone votes to read a graphic novel that Roohi thinks is infinitely inferior to the fantasy novels SHE would like to read, she is even angrier. It doesn't help that another cross country runner, Bianca, seems to have taken her place in her cross country friend group. As discussions about the book start, the participants bring up a lot of personal struggles and ask for help to work through them, which was part of Mrs. Sharp's plan for the group. While she's not super pleased to have to deal with Nate, the two bond briefly over their shared love of drawing. When it is revealed that the school district is short on money and Mrs. Sharp may have to work at other libraries if librarian positions are reduced, the lunch bunch tries to find ways to save her full time position. They think about bake sales (figuring the $635 would save at least one librarian's job!), petitions, and a talent show at which the group would speak passionately about the importance of librarians. None of this is easy, and Roohi and Nate don't always see eye to eye about anything. The two eventually reconcile, but librarian positions are still cut. With Mrs. Sharp only coming to their school two mornings a month, Roohi, Nate, and the other lunch bunch group have to find their way forward. 

Strengths: There are any number of middle grade novels about book bans, but fewer about the very real problem of librarian positions being cut because of funding shortfalls. Since I could have lost my job had my district's ballot initiative failed, this hit very close to home. The cuts are realistically portrayed as well, and I love the impassioned lists of all of the good that full time school librarians do. The friend drama was well portrayed, and I felt particularly bad for Roohi's broken toe! Been there, worn the boot! Nate and Roohi are definitely different types of students, but they are very realistically portrayed; many cross country runners want to be involved in everything, as Roohi is, and are frequently at odds with students who, like Nate, are not as fond of academics. I loved that they connected over their shared love of drawing, and tried to work together to save the library. The addition of drawings to the story will add some appeal to this title, for fans of those graphic novels of which Roohi is not fond! 
Weaknesses: Roohi's situation is exactly why I don't allow students to spend more than a lunch or two in the library before I insist they talk to a school counselor to get proper help with their problems. Roohi clearly needed a lot more help that Mrs. Sharp could provide. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Varnes' Property of the Rebel Librarian, Magoon, Smith, and Murakami's The Vice Principal Problem, or Janet and Jake Tashjian's Einstein the Class Hamster Saves the Library.