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Summary
Summary
Angry when they are excluded from the soccer team, sixth grader Justine and the rest of the school misfits form their own team and begin training with a coach who drinks heavily but gives them a special gift.
Author Notes
Bill Wallace was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma on August 1, 1947. He received a B. S. from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in 1971 and a M. S. in elementary administration from Southwestern State University in 1974. Before becoming a full-time author, he was a physical education instructor, a classroom teacher, and the principal for the same school he had attended as a child.
His first book, A Dog Called Kitty, was published in 1980. He wrote more than 30 children's books during his lifetime including Danger on Panther Peak, Trapped in Death Cave, Red Dog, Buffalo Gal, Danger in Quicksand Swamp, Beauty, Aloha Summer, Watchdog and the Coyotes, and Coyote Autumn. He also co-wrote seven books with his wife Carol Wallace including The Flying Flea, Callie, and Me; That Furball Puppy and Me; Bub Moose; Bub, Snow, and the Burly Bear Scare; and The Meanest Hound Around. He received Oklahoma's Arrell M. Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 as well as 22 child-voted state awards. He died of cancer on January 30, 2012 at the age of 64.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Rejected by the local soccer team, a motley assortment of kids decides to recruit enough members to form their own team. They call themselves the Misfits, intending to describe their racial, economic and emotional makeup. Needing a coach, they draft their former principal, now an alcoholic. In exchange for payment in beers, he takes on their cause and, using self-esteem boosters, pulls the team together. Along the way, he solves (with alarming ease) various problems related to immigration and physical abuse. The pat solutions and cliched wisdom negate any possible credibility. Characters are little more than personifications of social problems, while colorless writing and a predictable plot further weaken this would-be Breakfast Club . Ages 8-12. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
A group of kids who are labeled misfits band together and form their own soccer team. Realizing they need a coach, the group approaches a former college soccer star and convinces him that they need each other. The conflict is unoriginal; the resolution, predictable. Fans of 'The Bad News Bears' may enjoy it. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-7. Unfairly denied a place on the soccer team, a group of youngsters forms its own team. And a motley crew it is--a Japanese student who speaks little English, a boy who is clumsy, one who is too little, one who is a poor student, and another who can't afford the neces~sary equip~ment. The kids bribe their former school principal (who used to play soccer) with beer scavenged from garbage cans. After they have been strictly taught the rules for being a team and have had months of practice, their unconven~tional coach gets them into league play. What they and the coach learn about them~selves, about each other, and about what is important in life makes a fast-paced story. Although the tale has prob~lems--some characters are stereotypical, the principal abuses alcohol and tobacco, the parents seem distant, and there are unnecessary melodramatic touches--it has strengths and provides excel~lent discus~sion opportu~nities. The coach's method of building a team by forcing kids who do not know one another to play and study togeth~er is refreshing. There is enough soccer action to appeal to readers who enjoy sports fiction, and the theme of never giving up is laudato~ry. ~--Deborah Abbott
