Score for Imagination

Lola Jones series #1

by Jonathan Eig, Alicia Teba Godoy (Illustrator)

Lola and her friends want to play soccer. The boys don’t want them to. The girls are not only good players, they’re also strategic, and end up scoring for the team.

Genres: Sports, Childrens

96 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 2020

About the author

Jonathan Eig is the author of six books, four of them New York Times best sellers, as well as four books for children. He is a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
His most recent book is "King: A Life." His previous book, Ali: A Life," was the winner of the PEN Award and hailed as an "epic" by Joyce Carol Oates in her New York Times review.
His other books are: "Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig;" "Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season;" "Get Capone;" and "The Birth of the Pill."
Jonathan served as consulting producer on the Ken Burns PBS documentary on Muhammad Ali.

Reviews

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Score for Imagination addresses a common problem: boys vs. girls. The boys at school refuse to play soccer with the girls, despite the teachers' requirement that they do. The sly boys find ways to exclude the girls without appearing to do so. Lola is not to be thwarted, and seeks various though unsuccessful ways to integrate herself into the game. Much to Lola's exasperation, her grandfather invites a neighbor boy and his grandfather to join them for dinner. Lola and the boy team up to to bring the boys and girls together into cohesive soccer teams executing real plays instead of individuals competing in a version of bunch ball. I won't spoil the how, but I will say that it's clever, a bit manipulative, and very gratifying to see.

Readers will identify with the the issues Lola faces and appreciate the authenticity. Lola's a fleshed-out character with a hinted-at backstory that implies the complexity of real life. While the focus is on the recess rivalry, there is more to the Score for Imagination than just the soccer conflict – the undercurrent hosts themes of friendship, family expectations, and cooperation. Between the relatable content, the fun illustrations, the size of font, and the complexity of language, Score for Imagination is a winner!

[Annamarie Carlson (she, her)]

Lola loves practicing soccer with her mom every Saturday. But Lola doesn't just love the time with her mom--she also really wants to get better at soccer. She knows she isn't very good, and the boys in her third grade class won't let Lola and the other girls play. How can Lola convince everyone that playing as a team will make them all better?

A fun addition to the Lola Jones book series. Lola learns all about imagination, friendship, and teamwork in a sports-focused book that will appeal to young readers.

[Jane Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Score for Imagination is one of two fun and exciting titles that launched the new Lola Jones illustrated chapter book series. Lola Jones is a bright and smart little girl, who loves reading, playing soccer and her family & friends. In Score for Imagination, Lola and her girlfriends have to navigate the big challenge of being excluded by the third-grade boys on the soccer field at school. But with lots of heart and a little help from her family, Lola ends up scoring big!

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little on the nose at times, but very cute.

[Kamaraju Kusumanchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was amazing.

[Julie H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute series for middle grade readers or a read aloud for young readers. It’s been fun for my little one to read a sentence here and there in our read aloud books. Fun story!

[Anjali · Rating 5 out of 5]

My almost-7 year old missed all of the Anne of Green Gables references (they flew right over his head) but I enjoyed them, along with this story of Lola and Gabriel and how they conspire to get the boys to include the girls in their soccer game.