Pele: King of Soccer/ El rey del futbol by Monica Brown

Pele: King of Soccer/ El rey del futbol
Monica Brown
Rayo (2008)
ISBN 9780061227790
Reviewed by Cayden Aures (age 4) and Mom for Reader Views (1/09)

The bilingual book “Pele: King of Soccer/ El rey del futbol” explores the life of Pele, a soccer legend.  He grew up poor in a town in Brazil.  Every evening, Pele and his father would go play soccer in the streets.  His family had so little that they couldn’t even afford a real soccer ball so they used other things like grapefruits instead.  We learn how Pele got started playing professionally and what he has accomplished in the sport.

Cayden:  “I play soccer in the yard with daddy.  I am going to start playing on a team this week too!  I am glad we got this book about soccer.  That guy is really good at playing it.  He got it in the net 1000 times they said!  He is good at soccer like Michael Phelps is at swimming!  I liked the story.  The pictures were kind of swirly though.  I want to read it again!”

Parent’s comments:
This book was perfect for my son.  He loves all things soccer and actually will be starting an indoor league in a few days.  He, and I, really enjoyed the story of Pele and his humble beginnings.  The book definitely held my child’s interest from start to finish.  The illustrations were a little on the abstract side and it was a little difficult for Cayden to understand a lot of them.  The storyline, however, more than made up for that for him and “Pele: King of Soccer/ El rey del futbol” by Monica Brown will be a book we will read again and again!