That's Not How You Play Soccer, Daddy!

by Sherry Shahan

Mikey is the super-competitive young captain of the Hot Diggedy Diner soccer team. He works hard, even if his teammates are easily distracted by anthill investigations and turning themselves into whirlybirds.
After a tough practice, Mikey only wants to practice for the Big Game. Daddy offers to help, but to Mikey’s dismay he keeps bending the rules and telling his impatient son to “just have fun.” After an irresistible ticklefest, however, Mikey finally comes around to Daddy’s way of thinking―and joins him and Socks in the worst, best soccer game ever!
Author Sherry Shahan shows young readers that there is more than one way for kids to play―and enjoy―a game. Illustrator Tatjana Mai-Wyss’s exuberant and whimsical watercolor illustrations reflect the characters’ winning personalities and the upbeat spirit of the story.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Sherry Shahan is a photographer and an author. She enjoys watching, photographing, and writing about the otters that play in the sea near her home in California. Sherry also wrote and photographed The Changing Caterpillar for Richard C. Owen Publishers.

Reviews

[Cora & Ellie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great illustrator, not fun to read

[T Crockett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the idea, that games should be about fun and spending time together, not just rules and winning. I found the action surprisingly hard to follow, and I'm an adult. I appreciated that the author was playing with language, using lots of onomatopoeia to create movement, but I couldn't visualize what was happening. The kids I was reading to had a lot of questions about what was going on. At the end they were so concerned that the boy and his dad would hurt their feet playing soccer barefoot, that I think any message was missed.

[Shyam Rahim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mommy is happy that the coach is female and that the moral of the book is to have fun and not concentrate on winning.

[The Brothers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A father plays soccer with his son and they both learn something from the other.

Illustrations are average.

[Alina Borger]

My soccer-obsessed children were very excited about this book but couldn't stomach it past the halfway point.