Carla Fitzgerald is a Sydney-based former lawyer and tutor with the Australian Writers Centre. She is the author of picture book Keeping Up With the Dachshunds, plus middle grade novels How to Be Prime Minister and Survive Grade Fiveand How to Break a World Record and Survive Grade Five. Now we have How to Make the World Cup and Survive Grade Five! All three novels stand alone but follow a similar premise in which the main character and their co-conspirator attempt some kind of incredible feat while the grown-ups around them mostly remain oblivious.
In this book, main character Ronni is obsessed with sitting in her huge comfy armchair while watching (and critiquing) sport on TV – just like her parents, who work from home and order their groceries online so they never have to leave the house (and risk missing some sports coverage). Ronni’s parents even turn down the opportunity to attend a soccer match in person when Ronni wins free tickets – because ‘you actually get a much better view of the game on TV’… plus their chairs are just so comfy! So when Ronni and her best friend Kai are overheard expertly discussing tactics at the game, and subsequently recruited to secretly coach the Australian women’s soccer team through the World Cup qualifiers, it’s no surprise that Ronni’s parents just sign the ‘extra special ball kids’ permission form without reading the fine print and have no idea what the kids are really up to.
Although Ronni and Kai’s soccer advice is solid, their task becomes increasingly difficult as the team still doesn’t perform well, their friendship starts falling apart, Kai’s dad loses his job and starts planning a move to New Zealand, and the media gets hold of the kids-as-coaches story. These additional elements make it more than ‘just a sports book’ and helped keep this sports-oblivious reviewer invested in the story. It’s a great pick not just for sports fans, but for anyone who enjoys realistic fiction starring the emotional lives of Year 5 kids. Many young readers will also likely appreciate that Ronni is not yet at the stage of having crushes – she’s baffled by her female friends’ sudden refusal to play lunchtime soccer with the boys and their questions about whether she thinks Kai is cute.
A final point I’d like to highlight is the story’s messaging around the role of screens in our lives. It makes a strong case for the importance of screen-free family time without belabouring the point. I’m confident young readers will get it loud and clear – and perhaps even identify with the loneliness Ronni feels when being phubbed (i.e. ignored by someone using a smartphone). I also liked that Ronni’s brother ‘got a phone last year for his fourteenth birthday, but he hardly ever uses it’. This means the eleven-year-old characters can use his neglected phone when the plot requires it, rather than have their own – an authorial choice I respect and appreciate as the parent of a completely phone-free highschooler and a Year 5 child whose peers are already getting smartphones. I hope to see more authors subtly contributing to healthier childhood phone-use norms in this way.
This would be a suitable Readers Cup title for Years 5/6.
Annaleise Byrd is the author of middle grade portal fantasies Losing the Plot and Down the Plot Hole, and the picture book You Are Not a Pup!
