World Cup Fever!

Ben recently finished his first soccer season.  Having the World Cup coincide with his introduction to the game has been really fun - and we hope watching a few games here and there will help increase his excitement about playing.

While looking for books about soccer at the library last week, I was thrilled to discover the recently published Maisy Plays Soccer.  Ben, Alice, and Clara all LOVE the Maisy books.  They are familiar with the characters, and the stories are simple with colorful pictures.  Clara, who is more than a little obsessed with soccer herself, also loves that Maisy has a stuffed panda.  I read this one to the girls at least five times today, and in addition to providing a good story, it also helped us talked about why we like to play sports, who we like to play with, what our favorite team colors are, and of course, what we look for in a good post-game snack.

I am not myself a soccer player, nor am I very knowledgeable about the sport, but I have enjoyed a few books about the game over the years.  These include the Young Adult Non-Fiction book, Outcasts United by Warren St. John, and Nick Hornby's chonicle of his obsession in Fever Pitch.  There are so many amazing sports books out there for children and adults, I am sure to have a sport-by-sport round-up at some point.  But, until then, Go USA!!!