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Graffix: Matthew's Goals
Matthew doesn't care about anything as much as football. What's more, he's the best player in the whole school! But his mother has banned him from playing, and she doesn't seem to care if he misses the most important match of the season. The whole team are depending on him. Is there anything he can do?
80 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 29, 2009
This is a kid's book about football (that's the English football that you play with your feet, not the American football that you play with your hands), or, depending on how you look at it, a kid's book about emotional trial, response and resolution. This is the first book I ever bought myself and it used to be one of my favourites when I was 8, probably because I got it for about 20p from a book sale at school, and I've always loved a bargain... For example, my current favourite possession is a black fired-glass TV stand that I got for £25, reduced from £150. Yummy.
I don't remember too much about the plot, because, as previously stated, I was a juvenile little pillock when I read it, but basically it's about a kid who is really good at football, and then he commits some heinous crime (I think he left the freezer door open and all the food melted) and his mother reluctantly bans him from playing football to punish him - and lo and behold, the next match is the cup final! Then some stuff happens, and eventually he gets to play in the match and scores the winning goal. I don't actually remember the ending, but that's how all these books finish, so I'm probably right.
Our titular main character is an everyday young man of his age, as pictured on the front cover of the book sporting a typical early 90s curtained hairstyle. One thing sets him apart, however: he's a complete idiot. Seriously, I never realised it at the time, but how can you lack the spatial awareness to close the freezer door and still be good at football? Unless he just did the same as most kids his age and ran aimlessly up the field ignoring all team mates. Erm, anyway, my 8-year-old brain was much more forgiving of such deficiencies, and I used to like him, despite the fact that he was exactly the same as all the kids at school that I used to hate because they kicked balls at me when I tried to join in, and told me to 'shut up' if I scored a goal, and recommended that I jump out of a second-storey window because I couldn't do poetry, and... and... ok, I need a moment, this has brought some stuff up...
*Ahem* On to the other characters! There's Matthew's best friend... err... his name might have been John... Yeah... John was cool... And there was a girl as well. Now this is a BIG plus to the prepubescent reader, because the sheer presence of a young female character is enough to pique a healthy level of interest in the next few pages of the book, at least. Also, I would say that the book has just the right level of female interference; at no point could the girl be construed as having any sort of relationship, heterosexual or otherwise, with anyone else in the book, so the reader will not feel too embarrassed to read the book in the presence of his (or her) parents.
In summary, if you have a child that is male and likes football and has the ability to maintain concentration for more than thirty seconds (a rare gift, I know), there is a good chance they will like this book. Plus, I just checked on Amazon and you can buy it used for like 1p, so what have you got to lose?
On the downside, I read this book when I was a child, and I read it many times over, so it possibly had a significant role in my psychological development. If you do not want your child to become a monomoniacal loner with more failed novels than friends, avoid this book at all costs.
I don't remember too much about the plot, because, as previously stated, I was a juvenile little pillock when I read it, but basically it's about a kid who is really good at football, and then he commits some heinous crime (I think he left the freezer door open and all the food melted) and his mother reluctantly bans him from playing football to punish him - and lo and behold, the next match is the cup final! Then some stuff happens, and eventually he gets to play in the match and scores the winning goal. I don't actually remember the ending, but that's how all these books finish, so I'm probably right.
Our titular main character is an everyday young man of his age, as pictured on the front cover of the book sporting a typical early 90s curtained hairstyle. One thing sets him apart, however: he's a complete idiot. Seriously, I never realised it at the time, but how can you lack the spatial awareness to close the freezer door and still be good at football? Unless he just did the same as most kids his age and ran aimlessly up the field ignoring all team mates. Erm, anyway, my 8-year-old brain was much more forgiving of such deficiencies, and I used to like him, despite the fact that he was exactly the same as all the kids at school that I used to hate because they kicked balls at me when I tried to join in, and told me to 'shut up' if I scored a goal, and recommended that I jump out of a second-storey window because I couldn't do poetry, and... and... ok, I need a moment, this has brought some stuff up...
*Ahem* On to the other characters! There's Matthew's best friend... err... his name might have been John... Yeah... John was cool... And there was a girl as well. Now this is a BIG plus to the prepubescent reader, because the sheer presence of a young female character is enough to pique a healthy level of interest in the next few pages of the book, at least. Also, I would say that the book has just the right level of female interference; at no point could the girl be construed as having any sort of relationship, heterosexual or otherwise, with anyone else in the book, so the reader will not feel too embarrassed to read the book in the presence of his (or her) parents.
In summary, if you have a child that is male and likes football and has the ability to maintain concentration for more than thirty seconds (a rare gift, I know), there is a good chance they will like this book. Plus, I just checked on Amazon and you can buy it used for like 1p, so what have you got to lose?
On the downside, I read this book when I was a child, and I read it many times over, so it possibly had a significant role in my psychological development. If you do not want your child to become a monomoniacal loner with more failed novels than friends, avoid this book at all costs.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews