A Winning Goal

Gr 2—6—A "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" type of story, set at Innerstar University. Students who play on the school's soccer team are introduced at the start with a one-line profile, e.g., "Isabel—a confident girl with a funky sense of style" or "Amber—an animal lover and loyal friend." Readers become the main character and make choices, such as taking the final attempt at a winning goal or passing to a teammate, or supporting a classmate's idea for developing a former attic space in the dorm. These lead to other options and a total of 20 different endings—plus more available online. Most choices deal with being a good friend and teammate—nothing earth-shattering or adventurous. One negative is the use of dark green pages at the beginning, which makes reading the text difficult. Another flaw is illustrations that make all eight girls look inanimate—like American Girl dolls—and all the same, except for hair and eye color. Stick with Patricia Hermes's Emma Dilemma and the Soccer Nanny (Marshall Cavendish, 2008), Jake Maddox's Soccer Spirit (Stone Arch, 2008), or Rich Wallace's "Kickers" series (Knopf), all of which are more exciting and have more game action—Kate Kohlbeck, Randall School, Waukesha, WI