Budi is 11 and trains with his friends to be a professional football player like his hero Kieran Wakefield who plays for Real Madrid. Well, that is he trains when he isn't working in the factory making uppers for the shoes Kieran Wakefield wears. Of course, this is not a perfect book, as symbolised by the 3/5 stars. I had two issues with this book, one of which I have already partially highlighted:

Kick by Mitch Johnson (9781474928151/Paperback) - LoveReading4Kids Kick by Mitch Johnson (9781474928151/Paperback) -

Another problem I had was actually a specific plot point. I'll try not to give anything away but, in effect: there is something that happens towards the end of the book which COULD potentially have changed the course of a character's life and the way things turned out really annoyed me! (It will be at the bottom hidden behind a spoiler warning so you can read it if you want to!) Menariknya, Mitch Johnson sepertinya tahu banyak dengan seluk beluk Jakarta. Aku tidak tahu apakah beliau ini pernah ke ibukota Negara. Atau memang pernah menetap hitungan tahun. Walaupun tidak sepenuhnya pas menggambarkan kehidupan ibukota. Tapi untuk debut perdana yang berhasil kurampungkan, novel ini menarik.

Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments I have a feeling this will sound pretentious but I do think this could have been pulled off as an adult novel, as oppose to a teenage novel. To make the book better, I would keep all the plotline and keep all the themes but just make the STYLE of the book a bit more adult! In a way, I admire Mitch Johnson's decision to write a younger book about it but I think it would have been executed just as well, if not better, as an adult novel. Ways of doing that might have been to make the book a bit longer and to make the writing style a bit more literary and just to expand on the themes and story perspective. It worked as the way it came out but I think a more sophisticated genre would have suited it more.

Kick | Usborne | Be Curious Kick | Usborne | Be Curious

This debut comes out this month in September; it is a book primarily for teenagers (though this is fairly compatible with a certain type of adult reader!) and it follows a boy named Budi in who lives in Indonesia with his parents and his paternal grandmother; the family are very poor and they cannot afford to send Budi to school so he works in a factory which makes football boots for professional players. It is focused on ambition; it's focused on following dreams; it's focused on the injustice of a legal system, among many other things. The main focus of the novel is Budi's strong ambition to become a professional footballer and there are disadvantages barring that dream: 1) because of his poverty and therefore that situation being, at first glance, next to impossible and 2) Budi also has a genetically passed down condition which prevents his blood from clotting properly so not only does a cut need to be tended to a lot so as to prevent constant bleeding but also, he could potentially start bleeding internally due to an injury and not be aware of that until he dies suddenly. On the front of the book, it has the quote: "The Only Thing Standing In His Way Is Everything" and that is really symbolised through the telling of this story. Also Budi is a budding (excuse the pun) footballer and plays football whenever he can, commentating on his play in his head. “One day I’m going to be a world-famous footballer like Kieran Wakefield” – Wakefield, the Real Madrid player who cost the highest ever transfer fee, being his hero. Unfortunately the reality of Budi’s life is very different. He lives in Jakarta in a cramped dwelling with his extended family. He works in a sweat shop producing football boots for a company of ‘white men’. His uncle is in prison and soon his father finds himself on the wrong side of the law. The last thing Budi needs is to inadvertently become involved with The Dragon – the most feared man in Jakarta.There are many elements in this book, therefore, that show that message and relate to Budi's story in the meantime. However, towards the end of the book, it really does become so much more than that. I won't be spoiling anything but it does get very intense and very deeply emotional (some very nasty stuff happens!) and then it becomes more a story of morals and making the right decisions in life as oppose to the easy decisions. Those themes, again, I thought were handled really well and just in general, it was a really strong novel. Mitch Johnson has skilfully used football as a vehicle to present many deeper issues. By doing so, the theme of football will grab the attention of many readers and gives a tangible way into the more complex strands of narrative.