Yes Jaz faces sexism and doubt, yes it is harder for her because she doesn’t come from a privileged background, but it is her self-belief and sheer determination that propels her to realise her dreams.

I celebrated with these characters, was saddened by their setbacks and motivated by their determination.The novel begins with Jaz feeling helpless with the direction of her life: she gets kicked out of the dance club, gets bullied by the VIP (Very Irritating People), and gets rejected from the school’s football team because she is a girl. The first instalment in a new series, “The Dream Team,” is centred around football and addressing issues like friendship, families, and sexism.

I gazed up at the luminous purple stars on my white ceiling and wished hard that I could be like one of them. A delightful story of a young girl who just wants to play soccer (football to the rest of the world) and to keep her parents together. Jaz Santos isn’t the most graceful dancer and she’s always getting into trouble at school, but the one thing she loves more than anything else is playing football. It is vital that children understand how to learn from their mistakes but also learn that each student must be treated and valued equally. However there are too many characters to get a real sense of who is who here and some quite stereotypical while the plot fairly predictable but I would still read on.The boys in Jaz’ class were threatened by a girl who is talented at football and many of the teachers had no interest in helping the girls to get funding or even training for their team. The team wants to enter a girls tournament but is up against sports misogyny in their own school, difficult teachers, and no initial funding.