Tom Palmer’s Football Academy: Reading the Game is a football story for 8 year olds about a brilliant young midfielder hiding a secret he’s terrified anyone will find out.<\/p>\n
Ben can see what’s going to happen on a football pitch before it happens. He knows where every team-mate will be. Steve, the manager, says he’s one of the best at it in the whole squad.<\/p>\n
Off the pitch, Ben is the one holding things together. His mum works at a cafe, so after some home games he walks his little brother and sister home and looks after them all afternoon. (He’s taught them some rude words, which he’s starting to regret. Poo! Wee!)<\/p>\n
And there’s the secret. Ben can’t read.<\/p>\n
His best mate Ryan covers for him at school, reading out loud when Ben is asked and getting him through. But a newspaper report about Ben’s best game yet gets handed round the dressing room. Then a supply teacher picks on him to read in front of the whole class. Somebody whispers “thicko”. It all goes badly wrong.<\/p>\n
You’re right inside Ben’s head the whole way, and the panic is very real. The words swimming on the page. The tricks he uses to hide it. The feeling that United is the one place nobody thinks he’s stupid, and now even that might be gone.<\/p>\n
Then Steve turns up with a story of his own, and a pen and a notepad. It’s a really lovely, gentle scene.<\/p>\n
It’s worth knowing that Ben doesn’t always handle it well. He goes for a boy in class, shoves a team-mate to the floor and skips school for days. In the park a gang of older lads offers him a cigarette. Nothing worse happens, and the book is very clearly on his side, but your reader will see him at his lowest.<\/p>\n
For a child who finds reading hard, Ben could be a real comfort. He’s sharp, funny and a lovely footballer. He just can’t read.<\/p>\n
Each book follows a different boy, but the team’s story carries on from one to the next, so Boys United is the place to start.<\/p>\n
And if they’ve noticed James, the steady centre back, making mistakes that aren’t like him at all, Free Kick is his book. The team head to London for a pre-Christmas tournament, and James is quietly hoping the snow will get it called off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tom Palmer’s Football Academy: Reading the Game is a football story for 8 year olds about a brilliant young midfielder hiding a secret he’s terrified anyone will find out. Ben can see what’s going to happen on a football pitch before it happens. He knows where every team-mate will be. Steve, the manager, says he’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13918,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7448,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Free Kick","lr_seo_hook":"He can read a football match brilliantly. Words on a page are another story.","lr_series_id":405,"lr_series_name":"Football Academy","lr_series_position":4,"lr_series_label":"","lr_author_order":""},"book_tag":[1050],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[1087],"class_list":["post-13919","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-action-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-tom-palmer"],"yoast_title":"Football Academy: Reading the Game by Tom Palmer | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"He can read a football match brilliantly. Words on a page are another story. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n