The Beautiful Game

Gr 3-7–Valeria is a 13-year-old athlete with skill, speed, and power who shines in her town, and on the boys’ team, The Overlords. When adversity in the form of menstruation makes its appearance, more than soccer is upended in her life. She is rejected by her team and coaches who don’t know how to handle her changing body. Her relationship with her grandfather sours (Abuelo is also a coach, and didn’t defend Valeria’s position on the team). This betrayal crushes her, and what follows is a toxic silence between grandfather and granddaughter. When Valeria joins a girls’ team, she has a sisterhood to help her navigate menstruation and challenge the stigma associated with periods. While this novel touches on many relevant topics for young people, there is still the question of a father figure’s silence and the damage done to a child. In the end, there is no explanation or discussion for why Valeria’s abuelo abandoned her when she needed him most. At a certain point in the novel, the grandfather comforts Valeria after she commits a terrible foul on the pitch. The embrace is what readers are waiting for, but it feels unearned without an actual discussion of the pair’s horrible silence that spanned a couple hundred pages. The author’s prose excels at depicting fútbol and its culture, as well as sisterhood in sports. But the depiction of a toxic male figure could benefit from more unpacking.