The Dream Team: Jaz Santos vs. the World (The Dream Team, 1)

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I mention all these profound takeaways but want to emphasise that the story is not too heavy handed, simply a cracking good middle grade romp, with relatable characters across generations portraying some of the heart-aching challenges they face and the heart-warming support that they show one another. I might be a tad bit biased, but I’m giving this 5 stars for the amount of effort, joy, heart and soul I put into it.

The novel begins with Jaz feeling helpless with the direction of her life: she gets kicked out of the dance club, gets bullied by the VIP (Very Irritating People), and gets rejected from the school’s football team because she is a girl. It will surely encourage children that they don't need to blame themselves for their parents' disagreements. Will the Bamrock Stars be up to the challenge and even if they are, will their success be enough to bring her family back together? the World by Priscilla Mante is a short, middle-grade book about eleven-year-old Jaz who is obsessed with football (soccer). While the book was written for children ages eight and up, there are many gems or quotes that I, an adult woman, needed to be reminded of.While this isn’t a book that is likely to become a new classic, Sophie would still recommend it to young readers, especially sports fans, and she still plans to pick up the next book in the series to see how the Bamrock Stars story continues. Priscilla Mante’s debut contemporary novel for children aged 9+ (the first in a series) is strong on the importance of organisation, teamwork and facing your fears and great at promoting women’s football while also tackling (no pun intended) the sexism that girls face in the game. The pacing was a bit strange, because the 'non sports' themes were scattered around, without an organic feel to them. Jaz Santos vs the World is the first in a new series about a girl who gathers an unlikely group of friends together to make their own girls football team. Spotting a flyer in a library for a Brighton Girls Under-11s Seven-a-Side Football Tournament she forms a team, Bramrock Stars, which is her escape really.

That’s the fantastic message of this book - it might be harder for you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve it. Thank you to the author, NG UK and the publishers for the opportunity it read an E-Arc of this fantastic story.It truthfully explores the sexism in society and schools, whereby boys get all the football equipment, time and investment, showing how girls are shut out of sport from the earliest age. Also by the end of the book Jaz is facing up to her fears and realising that when things go wrong around her, it isn’t her fault.

It’s a fantastic story, showing kids they shouldn’t give up on their dreams, especially when they are discouraged by people with outdated ideas on what girls and boys can and can’t do. Our main character Jaz has a fantastic set of friends and it was so entertaining reading about their journey to becoming a proper team; sleepovers and pizza making included! By presenting complex concepts like mutual aid and self-organisation in much simpler terms that are relatable to children, Mante highlights the importance of community in a world that attempts to deny women and girls opportunities.Telling the rags-to-riches tale of Bramrock Primary's first girls' football team, the novel is full of diverse characters who break plenty of sterotypes. You don't need to be a soccer(football) player or even know much about the sport to enjoy this story! Some of the other girls have no interest in the sport before Jaz recruits them to the team, but the story shows how beneficial the opportunity to join in is for them each in different ways. A scene that stands out in the book is when Jaz and her teammates strategise and set goals for what they hope their team will eventually become.

Jaz builds herself a team that starts out a bit rough around the edges with the intention of shooting for the stars. It was quite predictable that there would be this one thing the main character is bad at but it's the thing that makes them win the match. I am incredibly thankful to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Children’s UK for my chance to read an ARC of this book and I am excited to continue this series in future. The empowerment for girls/women, the building of unlikely friendships, the tackling of tough issues and a whole heap of laughs! Knowing that the society we live in today is patriarchal, Mante makes certain that Jaz’s life is contextualised and cleverly provides specific examples of how sexism is institutionalised.However there are too many characters to get a real sense of who is who here and some quite stereotypical while the plot fairly predictable but I would still read on.