Pele, King of Soccer

Pele, King of Soccer

Pele, King of Soccer

Written by: Monica Brown

Illustrated by: Rudy Gutierrez

HarperCollins Publishers, 2009

26 pages

Nonfiction

Pele grew up very poor in the town of Tres Coracoes in Brazil. He shined shoes and sold meat pies to help his family. Every afternoon, no matter how tire they were, Pele and his dad would play soccer in the streets. One day he came home and his dad was crying because Brazil lost the World Cup. Pele promised his dad he would win a World Cup for him one day. Pele and his friends couldn’t afford a soccer ball so they used a grapefruit. They started their own soccer team and were called the “Barefoot Team” because they couldn’t afford shoes. Even though they didn’t have a lot of money, they won a lot. One day Pele was invited to try out for a pro team and he made it when he was only 15 years old. The coach thought Pele was too skinny, so he gave him all the food he could eat. When Pele was 17 years old, his team won the first World Cup for Brazil just like he promised his father. Pele won two more Cups in his career and he became very famous and played all over the world and met many famous people. Pele is the only player to ever score 1,000 goals.

The illustrations in this book look like they were done using mixed media and watercolor. The pictures look like they are in fast motion because of the curves and slants. Pele, King of Soccer is a bilingual picture book. I like how they have the text set in English and in Spanish for students who don’t speak English.

This book will be good to use in the classroom when studying sports in other countries. Students can compare and contrast soccer and basketball using a Venn Diagram. Students can also learn new vocabulary while reading this book.

Monica Brown is an award-winning author and Rudy Gutierrez is an award-winning artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and abroad. I would definitely use this book in my classroom.