Title: Football School Star Players: 50 Inspiring Stories of True Football Heroes
Authors: Alex Bellos, Ben Lyttleton
Illustrator: Spike Gerrell
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Children’s non-fiction, Sports, Humour
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Be inspired by 50 stories of true football heroes.
Discover the innovators, record-breakers and World Cup winners whose impact has been incredible on and off the pitch. And learn about the spider with the hat!
*Free copy probvided by publisher for review…
Review: This is a great stand-alone addition to the already brilliant ‘Football School’ series. While the other books in the series focus on a range of different subjects, with chapters arranged like a school timetable, this book is different and is filled with information on 50 of the best football players of all time. The book is filled with black and white funny illustrations throughout which really liven up the information and make it feel all the more fun.
The 50 players are listed in alphabetical order and each player’s chapter starts with stats about them before explaining more about why they are a star player. There is a really big range of different football players in this book, it covers players from the past as well as the present and features a lot of female players as well as some disabled too. I didn’t even know there was an official disabled football being played and how brilliant the players were so this was especially interesting and encouranging to read. All the footballers included have different stories about why they are a star and there’s a brilliant variety from stars who campaigned for the environment to ones who fought racial prejudice and those who died young but changed the course of history and even medicine. It’s a really big range of different facts and they are all explained in an easy to understand way, with no more than four pages per player (so no boring big blocks of text!).
The illustrations that appear throughout the book really do add fun to what you are reading. I’ve always enjoyed the funny images in the Football School series and there are a lot of fun ilustrations on every page which are black, white and grey in colour and sometimes the illustrations contain little additional facts within them about the star players too. At the back of the book is a quiz which has a question about every star player that you have just read about. There are also additional charts and images behind the quiz which help you to see just how many players come from which countries, which ones have won certain awards the most, etc. It’s a great addition to take a look at these stats and helps to remind you just how many brilliant star players there are in the world of football.
I really enjoyed reading this and learned a lot. I was actually really fascinated by all the different things the different players listed have achieved, and I’m not even a football fan, so I can imagine that this would be even more exciting and interesting to read for those who are. I definitely think both children and even some adults would enjoy reading this, especially if you are a big football fan. It’s a brilliant addition to the rest of the series of books which I’d also recommend.
Have you read any of the Football School books yet? Do you enjoy or play football or any other sports? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 