A thirteen-year-old American girl plays on a fiercely competitive boy’s soccer team during the year her family spends in Italy and experiences culture clashes both on and off the field.
WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING
What keeps this tale from being just another soccer story with play-by-play action is the unique setting; the inventiveness of the chapter headings, which consist of Italian words, pronunciations, and definitions; and Irene’s determination.
School Library Journal
September, 2004
Soccer fans, especially girls, will appreciate the well-drawn action sequences and Irene’s feisty spirit.
Horn Book Guide
Fall, 2004
I love the way the author has translated the dialogue. The kids are speaking in Italian, and even though she writes it all in English (with a few Italian words we come to know sprinkled in), she conveys the spirit of the Italian by using word choices and arrangements a little different from colloquial English. It reminds me of native German speakers speaking English.
Sonderbooks
May, 2004
Kristin Wolden Nitz 