Soccer Dreams: My True Adventure Following the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, as a Fan and 12-Year Old Junior Reporter for the St. Petersburg Times … History-Making 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup!
Lauber, Leah. 2003. Soccer Dreams: My True Adventure Following the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, as a Fan and 12-Year Old Junior Reporter for the St. Petersburg Times … History-Making 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup! WCI Press.
Rating:
6
Summary:
Very impressive for a 12-year old
The book begins with a very brief history of the author’s personal soccer experience (it’s only about 2 pages; she starts playing at 7 and is only 12 when writing the history). The rest of the book then follows the author, Leah Lauber, on her assignments covering the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team for the X-Press Team, a group of children the St. Petersburg Times newspaper employed to write for the children’s section of the newspaper. Leah’s assignments included a visit to the women soccer team’s practice facility in Orlando, attending games in Florida, the gold medal game in the Atlanta Olympics, a game in Washington D.C., and the Women’s World Cup final in Los Angeles. Along with interviewing some of the players at each event, she, her father, or her grandfather took pictures, which were later used to illustrate her news stories and the book.
Included in the book are the newspaper articles Leah wrote for the Times based on her assignments as well as the full interviews with the players, which are included in the index.
Review:
I should note that I was contacted by Leah’s father to review the book after he saw some of my reviews on Amazon.com. After his description of the book and perusing the book’s website, I approached the book keeping in mind that it had been written by a 12 year-old.
First off, this is a remarkable piece of work for a 12 year-old. I wish someone had encouraged me to develop my abilities at such a young age. I hope she continues to hone her skill, as she definitely is talented.
As far as the writing goes, Leah’s writing at 12 was better than about half of the college freshmen I had in my introductory sociology course last summer. Of course, any professor that teaches college freshmen would immediately retort that there are practically illiterate students in those classes, but I think my class was particularly bright (no illiterates), and still, Leah’s writing ability was better than most of theirs. It wasn’t perfect and definitely could have used a pass over or two from the same editors that reviewed her newspaper articles (they were clearer and more well written), but it was surprisingly good, if not very complex; definitely beyond what I would expect from a 12 year-old.
Two very good decisions were made as regards to the organization of the book. First, there are a lot of pictures. Even though Leah’s writing is great considering her age, it isn’t strong enough to carry a 90 page book. Including the pictures fills up the space while keeping the book a quick read. Also, the full interviews with the players are included as appendices rather than in the book’s text. As Leah had a tendency to ask the same questions to everyone she interviewed at any particular event, the interviews can be a little redundant. The way they are presented in the text puts them to good use.
Though the intent of the book is not to provide a step-by-step account of the U.S. Women’s team, it does give enough information to explain what happened. It also provides an interesting look at some of the behind-the-scenes training for the team, a unique perspective of an uber-fan’s fixation with women’s soccer, and it drops the fact that the women’s team carried markers with them to sign autographs, which I think is pretty cool. Though I feel bad saying this because I am both a soccer player and fan, I have to admit I didn’t follow the U.S. Women’s Team very closely in the mid to late 1990s. I do, however, have an excuse – I was in a different country from 96-98. But even after that, I didn’t pay too close attention to the Women’s World Cup, in large part because I’m too cheap to pay for ESPN and ESPN2. All the games that were on the basic channels I watched, but not the others. So, for me, Leah’s outline of what happened was informative.
There were a couple of problems with the book, the biggest I’ve already mentioned – it could have used a good editor. There are some very simple grammatical mistakes, including incomplete sentences, subject/verb disagreements, and mismatched tenses. Also, at times Leah’s comments seemed like a plug for attending women’s soccer games. I’m sure it’s cool to actually be there, and if I had unlimited funds and lived closer to where they played, I’d probably go. But I am, after all, a poor graduate student; even with her encouragement, I don’t think I’m going to make it to many games any time soon.
Finally, I had a hard time appreciating some of the statements Leah made that I believe were intended to present some sort of theme or underlying take home message. Perhaps the best representation of this are the last two sentences, “And it all started with a love of reading, which led to a love of writing, combined with a love of soccer, which led to a love of the players on the U.S. National Team. Isn’t it funny how things work out sometimes?” (p. 60). I have to admit I was a bit let down by this anti-climactic finale; it isn’t original or profound. What’s more, I have no idea how it ties in to the beginning of the book as Leah begins by relating her history and there is no mention of her interest in reading. I probably shouldn’t expect too much from a 12 year-old, but still, it was a little disappointing. It did, however, illustrate to me why adults generally write children’s books – they have a clearer sense of how to incorporate deeper themes into their writing.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, but not tremendously. I think it is better suited for a younger audience as I found many of the ideas and much of the commentary a bit superficial (I know, I know, she was only 12). The book does offer a unique perspective on the events surrounding the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team’s participation in the 1996 Olympics and the Women’s World Cup, and the pictures are nice. It could prove as an inspiration to aspiring young writers, who would be the audience for which I would recommend Soccer Dreams.