cover image The Road to Wembley

The Road to Wembley

Kim Chapin. Farrar Straus Giroux, $16 (197pp) ISBN 978-0-374-34849-6

Marty, an American fifth grader living with his family in London, doesn't know whether to be horrified or honored to have been chosen team mascot for the Belsize Bombers, a struggling group of British footballers. Through his warm and witty first-person narration, Marty chronicles the underdog team's season, which ends with a thrilling championship match, described play-by-play, in England's Wembley Stadium. Parallel plots involve Marty's ongoing rivalry with Arnold the Perfect, his cricket-loving brother; his worries about his father, who travels frequently; and his status as expatriate. Chapin, a former staff writer for Sports Illustrated , writes delightfully lifelike, vibrant dialogue and gives Marty an emotional complexity that makes him charismatic. The foreign but not unfamiliar setting, the knowing view of sports and the easy flow of the story add up to a winning combination. Ages 10-up. (June)