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Find out moreA you a fan of the beautiful game? We have a range of fiction and non-fiction books about football, football teams & inspirational players.
WHAT A SAVE!!! Crammed full with fun football trivia, quizzes, games, puzzles, top 10s, cartoons and more, this is the only annual fans of the beautiful game will need. Featuring Gary and all of the MOTD presenters, Paz, Ketch, and the planet's top teams and players, Match of the Day Annual 2023 is the best around - it will be on the top of your Christmas list!
Like lightning/you strike/fast and free/legs zoom/down field/eyes fixed/on the checkered ball/on the goal/ten yards to go/can't nobody stop you/can't nobody cop you... Twelve-year-old Nick is a football-mad boy who absolutely hates books. In this graphic novel adaptation of the acclaimed verse novel, football, family, love, and friendship take centre stage as Nick tries to figure out how to navigate his parents' break-up, stand up to bullies, and impress the girl of his dreams. These challenges - which seem even harder than scoring a tie-breaking, game-winning goal - change his life, as well as his best friend's.
Written by Rico Hinson-King, a Premier League Young Writer of the Year, Strong and Tough is a uniquely inspiring, reassuring picture book for children dealing with the turmoil of being separated from their siblings while hoping to find a forever family. Perfectly paired with Nick Sharratt‘s distinctive bright and bold illustrations, it’s based on the ten-year-old author’s personal experiences, suffused in empathy, with a stirringly uplifting ending. On the face of it, Charlie “looked like every other football-mad boy of his age. But he wasn’t.” When he was very small, Charlie’s birth parents weren’t able to take care of him or his sisters. As a result, all three children were taken to a foster home, with his sisters placed in the care of a different family. While Charlie’s foster home was nice, he missed his sisters, and found the situation incredibly scary. While Charlie’s sense of uncertainty and fear is movingly evoked, his story is underpinned by an uplifting refrain - “Charlie was strong. He was tough”. With Charlie’s positivity offering hope to children in similar circumstances, Strong and Tough also includes explanations of terms and roles (e.g. foster parents, social workers and judges) that will demystify the adoption process and offer much reassurance.
A hilarious fact and fiction hybrid from bestselling author and stand-up comic James Campbell, who has visited over 3,000 primary schools to tell stories and encourage children to write their own. Want to know why octopuses can't play football? And how to play the game across multiple dimensions? How about learning the real rules of how football is played, why Henry VIII banned it, plus where it came from and who the greatest players of all time are? Whether you love a game of table football, can't get enough of back-garden ball, only enjoy the game from your sofa or would sooner swim with sharks than play it, if you love to laugh - then this is the book for you! But be warned - this is NOT a normal book. You can read it forwards, backwards, sideways and in approximately 861,000 different ways in between. From comedian extraordinaire James Campbell, get ready to laugh your butt off to a silly book filled with funny stories, partly-true facts and hilarious pictures that will make you think twice about the game everyone thinks they know so well.
Fantastic Football is the second book in the Stupendous Sports series which aims to do for PE what Horrible Histories did for Year 7 history. Full of cartoons, jokes, fun facts and useful stats, it gives a brief history of football, details of player positions, the future of the game, the importance of diversity, the forthcoming Football World Cup, the rise of women's football, plus a great section on skills and tricks. Brilliantly illustrated by Matt Cherry, this is for fans of the beautiful game, their parents (and grandparents), but firstly for young readers who want something entertaining to dip into and, like the game itself, to share with friends.
The No.1 football series - over 1 million copies sold! Gareth Southgate was once just a boy with a big England dream. But he knew he couldn't get there without hard work. He trained every day, honed his defensive qualities and quickly became a formidable centre-back for club and country. He went on to guide Middlesbrough, as captain, to a first major trophy in 128 years! His leadership qualities as a player would transform him into a manager. Discover how Southgate put the penalty pain of Euro 96 behind him and inspired the Three Lions through his kindness, tactical rigour and positive mindset, to their first ever the UEFA Euro final. Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to superstar professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.
Football Rising Star | There are so many exciting moments described in this lively biography of football star Marcus Rashford. There’s the story of his first game for Manchester United’s first team, the club he’d followed all his life, a fairytale debut in which he scored twice to secure them a place in the next round of the Europa League. His first game in the Premier League was just as impressive – again, he scored twice to win the game. He scored on his debut for England too, at 18 years old, the youngest ever English player to do that. And yet, for many, what really marks him out is his success in persuading the government to extend free school meals for children during the summer holidays, and his campaigning against food poverty. It all makes for thrilling, inspiring reading, and Harry Meredith’s narrative does full justice to the drama. Thoroughly recommended for young football fans, whichever team they support.
Marcus is so good at football that there's a very real chance he'll be signed by Manchester United. But when he discovers he may be losing his hearing, his whole world falls to pieces and he finds himself having to put them back together on his own. But is this feeling of isolation real or just a consequence of his own behavior? While dealing with parents, friends and first girlfriends, Marcus gradually understands that accepting the help of others is ultimately an acceptance of self. A novel about friendship and family, The Silent Striker explores the issue of disability, identity and deafness, and the different ways in which we can choose to handle it.
Test your football knowledge with hundreds of funny and fascinating questions about your favourite players and competitions, plus enjoy a variety of other on-the-page activities. Find out more about the Football Superstars, an entertaining and informative series of biographies charting the success of some of our best known and admired global football players.
The eye opening and fascinating true story of Lily Parr, Alice Woods and their teammates in the Dick Kerr Ladies Football team are the inspiration behind this engrossing story of football obsessed Polly Nabb, who would much rather kick a ball than stay at home and help her mother, which is the role society expects her to fulfil. As men, including her beloved brother, were sent to fight in the war, women and girls took their place in munitions factories. When Polly sees these women playing football in their breaks, she lies about her age to get a job there too and eventually she is recruited to the famous Sparks team, who were playing public matches to sell-out crowds, but also on the receiving end of public vilification and scorn. Indeed, despite drawing crowds of 50,000, women's football was to be outlawed by the Football Association in 1921, who deemed it 'unsuitable for females'. This little-known fact will astonish modern fans of the Lionesses England team, as will the authentic detail of the dangers of the munition factories and the wider struggle for female independence and respect. This is a very well-rounded picture of life on the Home Front during the First World War, full of fascinating detail and incident, populated by vivid and memorable characters and infused with a real passion for the game of football. A very entertaining and enjoyable read that adds useful depth to any historical study of the period and a salutary lesson for any sexist sports fans!
50 True Stories of Football's Greatest Sides | If you like football, you’ll love the Football School series of books by Alex Bellos and Ben Lytttleton and this latest, Terrific Teams is another winner! As England falls deeper in love with the national team, Terrific Teams introduces 50 other great sides, from across the world and different eras, and explains just what made them so good. As a Red, I turned immediately to page 112, to read about the rebirth of Liverpool under the great Bill Shankley and how he developed their winning strategy not in the office, but in the tiny boot room under the main stand. It’s a fun fact, but it tells you a lot. The previous entry is tiny Lewes, saved from bankruptcy in 2010 with the introduction of an inspired share ownership scheme which means there are 1,500 owners; while the entry after Liverpool, is Lyon Women, a trophy-winning machine whose former players include Megan Rapinoe, Lucy Bronze and Dzsenifer Marozsán. This is a fantastic way of examining the variety of the beautiful game, its appeal and the players and fans who make it so special. Unbeatable!
July 2021 Book of the Month | The World Cup, the Europa league, the League Cup, Serie A – you name it, Paul Pogba’s won it (Serie A four times in fact). But if you want to know about the man behind the stats then this is the book for you. It’s jam-packed with information on Pogba’s early life and his playing career from its beginnings at the academy at Le Havre to his glory days at Juventus and Manchester United. There’s lots about his goals of course – especially those amazing volleys, Pogboom! – but other details too, his friendship with Jesse Lingard, his favourite music and yes, his hairstyles. Author and illustrator, who appear throughout in the comic style illustrations, are proper football fans and there’s a real sense of their enthusiasm for their subject. Lively and entertaining, and hugely accessible thanks to the mix of text and illustration, this is another winner in a top-ranked series.
