She's Got Books on Her Mind

Faith doesn't have the prospects the other girls in her soccer team have. She isn't very wealthy what wither her mom working night shifts to make ends meet without anyone to help her with her four children, well there is always Faith. Faith has been designated as her sibling's babysitter so her mom has some time to get some sleep between her shifts at the hospital. In exchange she gets to play soccer.

Faith is Faith Patel which means she's Indian which makes me oh so happy because hello! How many female Indian main characters have you met reading YA? The only problem is that I wish the book cover reflected her. Don't get me wrong, the girl on the book cover is very "I am woman. Hear me roar." but it would be nice if I can actually see Faith. Faith feels stressed out and like she's got the short end of the stick. Having to take care of your younger siblings - not fun. She's missed a lot of homework too but she doesn't even think she will be able to go to college so why bother?

Although Faith may sound annoyed that she has to take care of her siblings when something happens to one of them she shows a very caring side of her. Faith's very quiet so other on her soccer team may think she thinks she doesn't like them or maybe that she's even better than them. I don't know why the soccer team does this especially Caitlyn because have you never met a reserved person before? They are everywhere. You need to think about where that person's coming from. Caitlyn was her real trouble throughout the story. She would make snide remarks to her face. She's the one who got it in Faith's head that her coach, Coach Berg, liked her because he was letting her try out for another position on the team. When Faith started thinking that her coach liked her I couldn't help to laugh out loud. It was just so ridiculously funny. I mean this all in a good way. It's kind of sad that when someone was actually listening to her she felt that they must like her in a romantic way. It was like no one else had ever cared to bother to learn how she was feeling.

The book may have been just a little over one hundred pages but I really got a sense of who Faith is and what her story was telling me. I liked that it was just about a regular girl and like regular girls we tend to fall in love easily. I also liked it was about soccer which I played way back when. I wasn't good but it was nice to read about the action on the field. It made me reminisce. I don't know why but I think of this as a very "clean" book, one where girls can use to learn lessons from. I've read about the other Counterattack series and their summaries sound like that. I actually don't mind. They're very fun; light reads that I could see myself enjoying like I did with Offside. ( )

Faith Patel loves soccer more than anything in the world, but with all of her responsibilities, like babysitting her brothers and sister after school and that pesky thing called “school”, Faith doesn’t get the chance to play as often as she’d like. A quiet girl—and even more so since the death of her father—, Faith wouldn’t be able to go out for coffee even her classmates invited her, but when her soccer coach begins paying more attention to her, all of a sudden, Faith wonders whether she could find love with him. Offside is a story about a girl’s soccer dreams and the challenges she must face to achieve them.

Story & Pacing: 7
I always enjoy reading stories where the main character is involved in some sport because I don’t think enough attention is given to the difficulties of maintaining a specific GPA while also excelling in an extra-curricular activity. I really enjoyed the fact that Faith is required to babysit and that she doesn’t get the chance to do many activities outside of school because of those responsibilities. I wasn’t a fan of the idea of Faith falling in love with her coach. While this does happen in some schools, the novel didn’t explore it enough to make it seem believable.

Characters: 7
Faith is a great character that many kids will empathize with. She comes from a semi-large family with no father, so as the eldest, she has to handle a lot of responsibilities. The idea that she changes her name from her Hindu one to the English translation is something I think newcomers to an English-speaking country would understand. The problem between Faith and Caitlyn seems too neatly resolved, but it does offer hope.

Setting: 7
I would have liked more information about the sport, considering the story revolves around the soccer game. Other than that, the school and field settings seem just fine.

Style & Writing: 8
It is easy to get into Higgins’ writing. Her prose is simple, but not choppy. Readers will have no trouble flipping through the pages quickly to find out what happens to her characters. I found no typographical or grammatical mistakes, which is always a good thing.

Learnability & Teachability: 7
Soccer fans will like this story. Middle-grade girls will also find no trouble feeling for Faith and understanding her troubles.

POTENTIAL TEACHABLES
Soccer rules and superstitions; substituting 5 junk foods for 5 healthy foods (like in Faith’s nutrition report); PowerBars and other nutritional supplements; Hindu names of Faith’s brothers and sister and their English translations. ( )