Soccer Chick Rules

by Dawn FitzGerald

Overview

Tess's love in life is soccer. When she finds out that all sports at her school will be cut unless the community votes for a tax levy, Tess will do anything to rally votes. She's even joining forces with a cheerleader to help spread the word and raise funds. Throughout the campaign to save soccer, Tess is playing her heart out on the soccer field and struggling to make passing grades in her classes. But if the levy doesn't pass, will it all have been for nothing? Find out in Dawn FitzGerald's Soccer Chick Rules.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312376628
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	10/16/2007
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	996,625
Product dimensions:	5.22(w) x 7.64(h) x 0.37(d)
Lexile:	850L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Dawn Fitzgerald's first novel, Getting in the Game, was published to glowing reviews. Finally, sports fiction for middle-grade girls! Dawn FitzGerald lives in Ohio with her husband and two children. She teaches high school English and—as Coach Fitz—coaches the girls' varsity soccer team.

Editorial Reviews

FitzGerald takes a serious subject—school finance problems—mixes it with plenty of action-filled sports, and frosts the whole thing with best friends and rivals. The result is just what kids, especially girl jocks, want: a fast-moving, true-to-life, amusing take on middle-grade life.” —Booklist

“Girl jocks are the natural audience for Soccer Chick Rules, but it will also appeal to a wider readership. Its hopeful, but realistic, ending sends an important message to any girl with a passion or a cause.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Gr 5-8-Tess Munro, 13, loves soccer. When school sports funding hinges on getting a tax levy voted in, she works hard to make it happen, but her fundraising activities go awry, and she makes an enemy of an imperious classmate. Jillian hates her after her soccer ball hits Bo, on whom Jillian has a crush. When Tess's team suffers its only loss of the season, she vows to win her last home game, which is on the same day as the election. Her team wins the game, but the levy is voted down. In an abrupt but satisfying ending, Tess raises funds for a pay-for-play team and earns Jillian's friendship. Seven "soccer chick rules" are dispensed throughout the novel. Although they work well to highlight Tess's motivation, they would be more effective at the beginning or end of chapters. Girl jocks are the natural audience for Soccer Chick Rules, but it will also appeal to a wider readership. Its hopeful but realistic ending sends an important message to any girl with a passion or a cause.-Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Late in this cleverly titled story, Tess Munro, a passionate all-around athlete, is told by her brother that she has a one-track mind. But Tess, an eighth-grade girl, knows that her mind actually runs on two tracks: beating the soccer team that defeated hers, and making sure that the school levy, designed to fund after-school activities including student sports, passes in a community vote so that she can continue to do what she loves. FitzGerald's story, which mixes soccer realism with vanilla-flavored characterizations, basically runs down those same tracks, as Tess struggles to meet her goals. The personal conflicts have a good sportsmanship-like quality, which is to say they lack heat. What interests FitzGerald, and what she portrays well, is an expression of the sheer joy of athletic competition and the hard-breathing fray of the game. Consequently, it's a story that will largely appeal to female athletes, though its life message, which involves trying your best and not giving up, is applicable to all. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews