Goalden Girl
Tracey Morait
c. 2007
ISBN: 978-1-8479-9758-6
Lulu
www.lulu.com
152 pages, $13.95

Soccer has become very popular in the United States during the past generation. Today most US school-age children are enrolled in intramural soccer teams. Soccer has long been popular in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom. “Goalden Girl” is an adventure story about a young British teenager who is disappointed with an unhappy turn in her family and is also attracted to soccer. Tracey Morait has put together an interesting and well-plotted novel about young Gemma Sutherland, her family problems, and many well-described action scenes of Gemma’s soccer games.

The novel begins with Gemma Sutherland as bridesmaid at her father’s second marriage. Gemma doesn’t like her stepmother or her stepmother’s sister. Gemma is resentful because her father remarried after her mother’s tragic death almost a year ago. Both her stepmother and the stepmother’s sister are drunk at the wedding. In protest to dad’s remarriage to such a woman, Gemma decides to become Goth. While dad and the stepmother are on honeymoon, Gemma cuts her hair short, dyes it jet black, uses wax to make it stand up straight, and wears dark eye shadow and dark maroon lipstick. She tops it off with black tights full of holes, short skirt, and chains. She doesn’t like her new stepsister Portia either, whom she thinks is a spoiled brat and much too fat. She also doesn’t like her stepmother’s nephew Tyrone, who soon becomes her arch enemy and rival at school.

The death of her mother and her father’s remarriage has necessitated that the family move to a new neighborhood with a new school that does not support soccer for girls. Gemma’s earlier school did support girl’s soccer. Concurrent with her rebellion against the changes in her family, Gemma tries to get her new school to authorize a girl’s soccer team. She meets much resistance, especially from her stepmother’s nephew Tyrone.
He and his friends continually harass the girls compromising their ability to play well and even forcing postponement of games. Mr. Cassidy, the soccer coach assigned to the girl’s team has a suspicious relationship with Gemma’s stepmother. Gemma plays sleuth and seriously complicates the relationship between her father and his new wife. The father decides to host an extended family dinner to mend things, and the dinner descends into a venomous family fight.

In the meantime, Soccer has given Gemma an outlet for her frustrations and helps her meet new friends in her new neighborhood. She gradually realizes what kind of adjustments her stepmother and new stepsister have had to make, and her attitude toward them softens. Gemma’s courage and realistic outlook on life brings about a happy resolution to her problems and the problems of other characters in the novel also. Tracey Morait’s “Goalden Girl” is a wholesome action story for young people about problems teenagers sometimes have to face and the therapeutic effect of intramural sports. If you are interested in soccer, or if your children play soccer, you will enjoy this book. The setting for the book is in the United Kingdom. The spelling and local slang words are unique to the United Kingdom. This adds a special flavor to the novel. ( )