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

Product Information

It’s a fantastic story, showing kids they shouldn’t give up on their dreams, especially when they are discouraged by people with outdated ideas on what girls and boys can and can’t do. It will surely encourage children that they don't need to blame themselves for their parents' disagreements. This is the first in the author's new 'Dream Team' series and future books will each focus on another of Jaz's friends.

The girls pull together, with all their different ways of looking at life, and start to believe that they're worthy of winning. Definitely recommend this book especially for younger girls to see no matter what you can do anything and be whoever you want to be. 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. Will the Bamrock Stars be up to the challenge and even if they are, will their success be enough to bring her family back together? Telling the rags-to-riches tale of Bramrock Primary's first girls' football team, the novel is full of diverse characters who break plenty of sterotypes.

They also have to learn how to play as an actual team before they can think of playing well at the tournament. So when her parents' fighting eventually leads to her mother moving out of the house, Jaz focuses all her energy on football, putting together a team that she hopes can win the Brighton Girls’ Under-11s Seven-a-Side Football Tournament. The villain isn’t simply evil, there are reasons for their actions just like Jaz has reasons for hers.

And of course, the message that girls can do anything is an absolutely great one, and I loved seeing the Bramrock Stars proving girls can play football too. the World by Priscilla Mante is a short, middle-grade book about eleven-year-old Jaz who is obsessed with football (soccer). The empowerment for girls/women, the building of unlikely friendships, the tackling of tough issues and a whole heap of laughs! Jaz Santos gave casual but profound glimpses of a great and under-explored context too, young people growing up in mixed-heritage (and multi-lingual) homes. You don't need to be a soccer(football) player or even know much about the sport to enjoy this story!When Jaz sees a flyer for a girls football tournament, she has an idea - she will form a team, win the tournament and her mum will be so happy she’ll come home. This wonderful story is for all the kids who have adults in their lives who are set on stopping them, on holding up out-dated norms, than encouraging bravery and daring. Determined to fix everything, she creates her own girl's football team to be the star her mum always wanted. but some wise words along the way help Jaz to understand that life’s circumstances do not have to define her, and her own personal successes and failures don’t have to be tied up with the things in life that are simply beyond her control.

There is a wonderful light touch to the writing that makes you bounce along with Jaz and will her into succeeding. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online. This timely and heart-warming story about teamwork, self-belief and following your passions in the face of life’s up and downs is likely to score big with readers aged 8-11.

The pacing was a bit strange, because the 'non sports' themes were scattered around, without an organic feel to them.

Now I’ve got a team of seven very different girls and we need to work together, to be taken seriously as footballers. 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 is vital that children understand how to learn from their mistakes but also learn that each student must be treated and valued equally. It’s such a heartwarming read that deals with some hard subjects such as sexism, self-doubt and family problems.It is sometimes easier for teaches to single out one student as being disruptive and to blame them, rather than to address the situation properly and teach children valuable lessons through their actions. That’s the fantastic message of this book - it might be harder for you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve it. 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.