Title: Soccer Shock

Author: Napoli, Donna Jo

Book Preview:

CRACK!!!  A flash of light comes barreling down at Adam.  A lightning bolt hit right in front of him.  He felt sort of light-headed, but not for long.  There were two voices talking about how if I died, they would too.  Later he hears them again.  He wants to find out who they are?  Even better, WHAT are they?

Rating:

There was hardly any description in this book. This book’s very poor description made me not want to read on to see what was next and ruined the story. There was too much information at the beginning, and too little during the rest of the story. I couldn’t even create a picture in my mind. I was disappointed with the lack of description!

The events were not interesting. They were short, or they would be real boring! I thought this book was going to have cool soccer events, but it didn’t. It wondered around talking about tape and a flower painted soccer ball!

I really didn’t want to read into the book. I thought the book was very unexciting! I liked the soccer plot because I play soccer. Reading this is like reading an information text, you don’t want to read it but you have to. This book didn’t keep my interest at all.

The introduction didn’t catch my attention because it was short and doesn’t ask any questions that I would want to find out in the book later. The author introduces everything and has no odd cliffhangers.

The characters weren’t interesting. The author told everything you would want to know about the character in the introduction. That left no questions that you would want to ask about the character. Now they have no cliffhangers to make you want to move into the book. I couldn’t put myself into the characters place. I was upset with the characters and how they were so not unique.

I like the soccer plot and the thought of freckles talking got me thinking. I think the book would be better if it didn’t have all the parts that are meaningless. It needs to stick to the point, a kid that discovers his weird gift and soccer. I don’t care what his plans are for the whole week. If the author left out the unnecessary parts it would make the book more interesting. The author probably didn’t do this because she might think the story would be too short. I say it doesn’t necessarily have to be long to be good. [Craig]