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

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I’m not a football fan but I still loved this book, ‘Jaz Santos vs the World’ is a wonderfully warm, inclusive story about friendship, teamwork and family. Jaz loves football she’s always been playing with the lads at school and everyone knows she is good! I requested this book not knowing it was based in Brighton, that’s where I’m from and grew up and could really imagine all these families and all these children where I grew up.

It will surely encourage children that they don't need to blame themselves for their parents' disagreements. There’s more on her mind too - Jaz loves football and often plays with the boys at lunchtimes, but is excluded from the school team because girls are not allowed to play. 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.Whether that be lies from school mates getting her banned from playing football (her favourite thing in the world), teachers and boys who thought the boys team was more important than her girls team, or her parents splitting up at home. The school won't provide money or a coach for a girls' football team, so Jaz convinces a group of friends to join her and raise the money themselves. This dynamic resembles the current world we live in, in which children and young adults are sometimes more mature in handling conflicts and accepting accountability than adults. Yes Jaz faces sexism and doubt, yes it is harder for her because she doesn’t come from a privileged background, but it is her self-belief and sheer determination that propels her to realise her dreams. It is vital that children understand how to learn from their mistakes but also learn that each student must be treated and valued equally.

The excitement when my feet made contact with the ball to dribble or kick, the spark that shot through me as I ran down the wings, and the pride when the ball rolled past the posts. Boys’ and girls’ football is treated completely differently, regardless of the level it’s played at, and this stems from sexist ideas about what girls can and can’t do as well as boys can. Jaz self-organises and seeks advice from older women in the community, who offered to raise funds for transport, find second-hand football jerseys for the team, and an unpaid football coach.

Jaz is finding school difficult and is being labeled a troublemaker, but things are also difficult for her at home because her parents are fighting a lot.

The pacing was a bit strange, because the 'non sports' themes were scattered around, without an organic feel to them. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online. This scene highlights the importance of representation in helping young girls dream big and change the ingrained limitations we unconsciously place on ourselves.Themes like forging friendships, facing bullies, having family troubles, and dreaming big--Jaz Santos vs the World has all those and in such an accessible way. It’s so looking forward to continuing on in this series, first of all with Charligh’s story when it comes out in May! Now I've got a team of seven very different girls and we need to work together, to be taken seriously as footballers. When Jaz’s Mum and Dad start having problems, Jaz works out the perfect way to stop them arguing—she decides to start a girls’ football team and win the local tournament. 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.

But after a shaky start, seven very different personalities to manage, and no one at school taking the girls’ team seriously, football stardom feels a long way off. So, what works: the diversity and representation of the characters, the very readable prose and the positive messages for the audience. 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. I related to many of Jaz’s worries, like the nagging feeling we’re not good enough or that we are responsible for other peoples’ emotions.I believe this was a debut, so maybe in the future this aspect will get better; I don't think I will be reading the other books in this companion series, but I really believe there's room for improvement. She likes Dad's homemade pizza, she wants Mum to pay some attention, and her sights are set on football stardom.