Joachim Masannek

I really liked this book! I can see how this book would hold the interest of reluctant readers! Also it is a book that will mostly like capture boys which are often reluctant to read. It has lots of action and the vocabulary is easy to read while holding interest. I did find that it seems to be chop occasionally between chapters. However this may be because i am an adult reading the book, I feel students probably will not notice. I give the book 4.5 our 5 stars!

This is book two in an extensive series for young readers and in it we find the Wild Soccer Bunch at the end of the line. You see, at the end of book one, the gang beat the biggest baddest soccer group around but the high ended up rather short lived. A new kid's in town and although he loves the game as much as this motley crew, he won't be playing with them anytime soon....especially if his super soccer star father has anything to say about it.

To add insult the injury, when the boys try to show more find out the reason behind the obvious snub, they're met with a one two punch to both their egos and team spirit. For a team that was barely a team in the official sense of the word, this could be the end of the line....unless they find a way through the animosity, it very well could mean no more Wild Soccer Bunch.

When I first started reading this, I was less than drawn in. For me, the technical aspect of the soccer plays were getting me lost...I mean I have no vested interest in the game so a play by play on the events was a bit much for me BUT I kept on reading and I'm glad I did. Now on to the reasons why...

I loved the range of personalities represented by the characters on the team. I loved the real life reactions - disbelief, lack of support, ridicule - that the characters faced. Even if it was tough to see them treated that way, it was real and only served to drive the message home. What message? Where to begin!

The story taught that while strength can come from others, it must start with you. You have to believe in yourself before you can expect others to believe in you....even more so when your goal seems like a long shot. Perhaps most importantly especially for our competitive little friends....winning isn't everything nor does it always net us a trophy. Sometimes the richest rewards are not the ones we can see or flaunt...but the ones that are felt and help us become the people we want to be.

All in all, a great experience and one I'd gladly recommend to young readers round the world. show less

Brilliant ideas. Well, not for all the pages to be filled. Nice storytelling. Until I got bored on page 98 or so.
Loved the first few pages, didn't like the drawings too much, still read through it- it's one thing you can do when looking for some entertainment.

As a public school librarian, I was interested in reviewing this book to see if the series would appeal to my 3-5th grade students. However, I wasn't sure how good of a judge I would be because I don't read a lot of sport-related novels myself. The partner of a soccer fanatic, I know how exciting MLS can be for some folks, so my guess was this book would be a good fit for any young boy or girl who liked to play soccer, with or without dreams of being an all-star soccer player. Whether or not show more it would appeal to non-soccer fans was another story.

Masannek puts young readers directly into the shoes of a very young soccer player who shares a very big dream with his best friends, all members of a self-proclaimed, wild and crazy Wild Soccer Bunch. Without bogging readers down with too much active detail, his fast-paced, easy-to-read plot and simplistic dialogue guide the story of Diego's trial and transformation as an asthmatic who goes from being afraid of losing his spot on the team to taking charge of a team crisis, the point in which when his teammates' dreams need rescuing from the trash when the Wild Soccer Bunch is insulted by an MLS player who happens to be the father of the new kid in school. This chapter book is laced with humor and some nuggets of wisdom about being a true friend, sticking up for your beliefs, and daring to be better than your best.

All in all, I was not surprised that I would find the book appropriate and fun for my students. What surprised me was how much I could enjoy reading it for myself. Although some of the instances of parents taking a backseat to the desires of children who won't take no for an answer seem a bit fantastical, at the same time, Masannek has painted a likeness of real children who conceivably imagine themselves willing away the rules and limitations set by the adults around them when it comes to making a dream like becoming an MLS player a reality. Children may more easily accept the situations presented in the book with less of a critical eye for fallacy than I as an adult tend to use. I think it is safe to say that this is the kind of book that can transcend the age group it was designed for. Adults, even those with very sophisticated tastes, could have some fun with this book, and it is certainly a good book for parents to read aloud with their children! show less