38. The Matchstick Castle by Keir Graff

read the book from Bosler Library
2017, G. P. Putnam's Sons
277 pgs.
Middle Grades Realistic Fantasy
Finished 7-4-17
Goodreads rating: 3.59 - 138 ratings
My rating:  Probably, personally, a 2, but please read below
Setting:  Contemporary Boring, Illinois

First line/s:  "It was supposed to be the perfect summer.  I was going to camp out, build forts, have adventures, and score the championship-winning goal in the New England All-Star Under-12 Soccer Tournament.  When I wasn't doing those things, I was going to stay up late with my friends, eat as much junk food as I wanted, and pretty much do whatever I felt like until sixth grade started in September.  It was going to be epic:  the all-time, best summer ever."

My comments:  This book reminded me somewhat of the books I read and loved as a kid - Gone Away Lake and The Lemonade Trick, The Four Story Mistake and Half Magic.  I can't remember anything at all about those books except that I loved them.  This gave me the same feel.  Except....now I'm old.  And I didn't like it at all, it was just too far-fetched and ridiculous.  So I'm betting there's lots and lots of youngish kids out there that are going to love it like I loved those old titles of long ago.  So I can't rate it, really. Or I shouldn't.   I'd rate it a 2, but that's an old fogey's rating.  I'll leave this to the experts ... and the kids.

Goodreads synopsis: Brian can think of a few places he'd rather spend his summer than with his aunt and uncle in Boring, Illinois. Jail, for example. Or an earplug factory. Anything would be better than doing summer school on a computer while his scientist dad is stationed at the South Pole. 
Boring lives up to its name until Brian and his cousin Nora have a fight, get lost, and discover a huge, wooden house in the forest. With balconies, turrets, and windows seemingly stuck on at random, it looks ready to fall over in the next stiff breeze. To the madcap, eccentric family that lives inside, it's not just a home--it's a castle. 
          Suddenly, summer gets a lot more exciting. With their new friends, Brian and Nora tangle with giant wasps, sharp-tusked wild boars, and a crazed bureaucrat intent on bringing the dangerously dilapidated old house down with a wrecking ball.

Hope for Haiti – Jesse Joshua Watson

Illustrated by the author
G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin), 2010
$16.99
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Yellow
Illustrations: Acrylic

The book begins with this author's note:

"When I was young, my father worked as a designer for the humanitarian aid organization World Vision International. He brought home photos of kids from poverty-stricken countries, and specifically Haiti. I spent my childhood wishing there was something I could do to ease the people's suffering. As I got older, I saw how my own country was further impoverishing Haiti with its economic and political policies. Then, when the earthquake hit, I felt void of hope...until I started seeing photos of children playing soccer amidst the chaos. And in this I found great hope for Haiti, that even in the most tragic of circumstances children are resilient and will overcome. This is the hope I want to share with children everywhere. --- J.J.W."

Living in the soccer stadium in a new home made of six posts holding up a piece of tin with three sheets for walls, a young boy despairs. Then he sees a girl kicking a ball she has made from rags and rubber bands, and a soccer game ensues. And for just these few moments, these kids think of nothing but the joy of the game. A real soccer ball is introduced, a special soccer ball, and the world seems a little brighter for these kids.

There's a lot to think about here. The soccer ball was an old ball that had been autographed by Haiti's most influential soccer player, Manno Sanon. Its owner was smart. "We can let go of the past," the man tells us. "Right now we need to think about the future. And the future is you."

Goal! - Mina Javaherbin

Illustrated by A. G. Gord
Candlewick, 2010
$16.99
Rating: 3.5
Endpapers: Red

Five friends who love soccer (or "football" in South Africa) get a chance to play with a real regulation soccer ball, won by one of them. However, one has to stand guard on a shanty rooftop to watch for bullies who will cause trouble and steal the ball. And, unfortunately, in they ride on their bikes. But the wily friends hide the soccer ball, letting the bullies steal their old plastic ball, feigning tears. Then they go on to play again - because they love the game.

(And what will happen next time, and the time after that?)

A. G. Ford's illustrations are their usual: brilliant.

11. The Warrior Heir - Cinda Williams Chima

Heir Series #1
For: YA
Hyperion Paperbacks, 2006
426 pgs.
Rating: 4

Jack Swift is 16. He lives in Trinity Ohio, a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business. He has lived a normal, average life with his mom until the day he forgets to take his medicine. He's never forgotten before - he's taken it ever since he was born and had heart surgery to survive. Not taking it makes him feel different. Different-better, different-more clear headed, different-stronger. So much so, that during soccer try-outs his never-seen-before aggressiveness hurts a (nasty) teammate. This fateful day, his "forgetting" begins a journey of finding out about the life that's been planned for him since his birth. His normal life will never be the same. For it was not heart surgery that he had when he was born. He was born a wizard, a member of The Weir, but without the needed wizard stone behind his heart. So one was surgically imbedded. However, as an experiment, a warrior's stone was implanted there instead. And he discovers the hidden world of wizards and warriors, of the Red Rose and the White Rose, of tournaments to the death and magic.

There are no warriors left, they have all been killed off playing The Game or killed by the opposite side before a Game could begin. For it is the side that wins the Game that controls all the Weirlind until the next tournament. Competition is cutthroat. It's hard to trust anyone. He's being trained by the powerful wizard Leander Hastings, with help about charms from the elderly wizard Nick Snowbeard, neighbor and friend since his birth.

He still lives in Trinity and attends high school, becoming the school's soccer sensation. He's drawn to new student Ellen Stevenson. His two best buddies, Will and Fitch, are always around to help him out. But then summer comes, and things heat up. Members of both the Red Rose and the White Rose are trying to find him. When he accompanies his mom to England for the summer, he is almost killed, then finds out the rest of the truth about the life he must now lead. There's not much good news. And it gets worse.

The tournament arrives. Surpise after surprise...well sort of surprise....some were foreshadowed or guessed. Clever twists and turns. Excitement and fighting and strategies abound. Quite and entertaining tale.

There are a lot of videos on You Tube about this book, some done as book reports for an English class. WeReadBooks on You Tube has an excellent review. And Cinda Williams Chima has a good website. There are two more books in the series, #2 The Wizard's Heir is a companion book, and #3 The Dragon Heir is as well.