Soccer Star by Mina Javaherbin (review)

Narrator Paulo Marcelo Feliciano and his Brazilian crew are soccer crazy, but practice has to wait until after the young boys’ work is done for the day. Paulo spends his days helping on a fishing boat, while his friends help support their families by shining shoes, diving to amuse tourists, painting carnival floats, harvesting coconuts. At night, though, it’s soccer on the beach, and a collective dream to advance to the pros. Javaherbin’s opening note states, “My story is an homage to all soccer stars who have risen and continue to rise up from poverty,” and although fictional Paulo’s tale is certainly purposive, it’s not heavy-handed. Indeed, if this portrayal of his experience is to be faulted, it’s for the softened details of poverty in which the children arrive clean and healthy and energetic at their soccer match after smiling through their long day’s work. Picture-book brevity also does not accommodate development of a subplot involving Paulo’s sister’s aspiration to play along with the boys. Despite these cavils, though, Javaherbin and Alarcao offer young soccer fans a thoughtful and engaging look at a lively team of dreamers.