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Meet super-athlete Tess Adams and her teammates on her new AYSO team.  The philosophy of the team is that winning isn't everything, or even the most important thing!  Tess can't imagine anything worse, and begins to take a "winning" plan of action.  But not all of her teammates are happy with Tess's scheming.  Can they convince her that there is more to soccer than winning, before she loses all her friends?

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 1998

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Emily Costello

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111 reviews
July 1, 2025
Tess is hyper-focused on winning, and it makes her uncomfortable when her new soccer coach is more interested in developing skills and teamwork than playing to win. She devises a plan to trick her less skilled teammates into staying off the field, ensuring some victories for the Stars. But the plan backfires when her teammates find out and decide to show Tess exactly what it feels like to be excluded.

This is pretty much your run-of-the-mill children's sports story from the 90s. It was sponsored by a youth soccer organization; it's a quick read with lots of soccer trivia and terminology. The story moved along pretty quickly, and I did think all of the girls on the team were well-developed for how many of them there were. Tess especially was relatable and not just a stereotypical mean girl. As an adult this book was just so-so, but I think as a kid I would have really enjoyed it and wanted the rest of the series. I'm going to put it on my fifth grade classroom shelf for next year's sports enthusiasts.
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