The Kicks – Choosing Sides

Alex Morgan's The Kicks Choosing Sides is a football and friendship story for 8 year olds about a girl who wants to help a struggling rival team.

What happens

Devin Burke is co-captain of the Kicks, her school's girls' football team. They used to be the worst team around. Now they're flying, and they thrash the Santa Flora Roses ten goals to one.

It doesn't feel like much of a win. The Roses look miserable, and one of them, Sasha, is an old teammate of Devin's. She's close to tears. Their coach means well but doesn't know much about football, and nobody on the team is having any fun.

Devin knows exactly how that feels. So she gives Sasha her number, asks her own coach for advice and invites the Roses along to a weekend training clinic. It's a really kind thing to do. But when the Roses start getting better, not everyone on the Kicks is happy about it. Whose side is Devin on, anyway?

That's not the only friendship wobble. Emma and Zoe have been best friends since they were tiny. Now Zoe has new friends from art club and Emma can't understand why. Devin and Jessi are stuck in the middle, hoping they won't have to pick a side.

Devin tells the story herself and she's easy to like. She's competitive (even at bowling), loyal and a bit of a worrier. Her friends are great fun too, especially Frida, who plays every match in character as a spy or a princess and yells things like "Princess power!" across the pitch.

A quick heads-up before you hand it over. Devin and her friends are in seventh grade at an American middle school, so they're a good few years older than this shelf. There's talk of crushes, and a group trip to the bowling alley with two boys they like (they're not allowed to date, and they say so). It's all very innocent, but the world will feel quite grown-up to some younger readers.

For a child who's already mad about football, or who has ever felt torn between two friends, there's a lot here to recognise. The match scenes are fast and easy to follow, and the lessons about teamwork come through without any lecturing.

What to read next

This one sits later in the series, but it makes sense on its own. If they'd like another girl who builds a team from scratch, try Jaz Santos vs the World, where Jaz sets out to turn her classmates into a proper girls' football side.