Beans Baker's Best Shot

by Richard Torrey

An entertaining early reader about soccer, friendship, and sportsmanship. When Beans hurts his leg in soccer practice right before the championship game, his best friend Chester thinks it’s all his fault! Beans may not be able to play in the game, but he can still play an important role on the team when he cheers up—and cheers on—Chester. A great story for young sports lovers and those interested in character education. 

Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics—for children who are ready to read on their own.

Genres: Childrens, Sports, Fiction

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best friends Beans and Chester are super excited that their soccer team has made it to the finals. But when Chester accidentally injures Beans during practice, can their friendship and the team survive?

Teammates accidentally injure each other all the time, so this is a very likely situation for a sports player to encounter at some time. I really like Beans attitude through the whole thing. He doesn't blame Chester, just some of the other kids. And Beans give Chester the right encouragement to play well. A good soccer read, sportsmanship read, and friendship read.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

My children love these little books. They thoroughly enjoy each and every story, as if they are all unique and individual without any cause for similarity among them. Even though sometimes, they might seem tedious and repetitive to me as a parent, I do enjoy being able to read short-stories to my children that are clean and respective.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a clever story about two friends, Chester and Beans. They both play soccer and their team has made it to the Championship game. However, Bean, who every one thinks is the best on the team, breaks his foot and will not be able to play in the big game. To make things worse, it was Chester who caused Bean's accident. Chester doen't want to play in the game because he thinks that everyone is mad at him for causing Beans accident. Eventually Bean convinces Chester that the accident was not his fault and that the team needs him more than ever.

This is a good transitional reader. The story has engaging characters and an easy plot to follow. The author did a good job developing the friendship and teamwork themes.

[Kate Hastings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beans and Chester are best friends. They play soccer very well together and have helped their team to the championship. But during practice, the boys kick the ball at the same time and Beans ends up with a cast on his foot. He won't play in the championship. Chester feels terrible-- are they still best friends?

[Amy Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beans and Chester are excited to play in the soccer championship game but Chester and Beans collide in a practice and Beans fractures his foot. Chester feels bad and doesn't want to play in the last game that is until Beans has an idea.

[Christi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story about soccer friends, the one thing that annoyed me is that grammatically, Beans, possessive, should be Beans's, not Beans' which implies his name would be Bean. Which it was not.

[C.helbling · Rating 5 out of 5]

great talked about fractures and casts