Scotland Stars FC 2 – Calum’s New Boots

Danny Scott's Calum's New Boots is the second Scotland Stars FC book, a football story for 7 year olds about the kit that makes you brave.

What happens

It opens in Mr Aziz's shop with the telly on. Scotland need a win to qualify. Calum and his mate Leo are shouting at the referee, and Leighton the dog is barking at it too.

Then on comes James Cauldfield for his Scotland debut. He grew up in Caleytown. He went to Calum's school. He's wearing bright yellow boots.

Calum is ten, plays for the Caleytown school team, and is good. The trouble is his feet. He's playing in a pair of old battered boots Mr Aziz gave him, one of them taped up because it split open in the last big match, both of them nipping his heels every time he runs. Jordan, who is on his own team, calls him Museum Boots.

So when his dad takes him to the shop on a Saturday morning, and there's a whole wall of boots in every colour you can think of, and one bright yellow pair tucked in the bottom corner facing the wrong way, you can guess what happens.

Then there's a tournament in Edinburgh to play in them.

The football writing is the good bit. Commentary runs through Calum's head while he plays, so a move gets described twice, once as it happens and once as the voice in his head calls it. Nutmegs, grass-cutters, a goal in the last minute.

It's set firmly in Scotland. The boys are in P6. There's a girls' team at the same school, coached by Erika's mum, who's American and says soccer, which Calum and Leo find very funny.

A couple of the boys are unkind about Calum's old boots and one of them keeps it up. Nothing worse than that happens, and Calum mostly answers it by playing.

What to read next

If your reader wants to know how Calum ended up in Caleytown at all, the first Scotland Stars book covers it. He's just moved, he knows nobody there, and there's a school team he very much wants to get into.