Review: Baller Boys, by Venessa Taylor, illustrated by Kenneth Ghamm

Year 3 besties, Shay and Frankie, have a seriously intense love of football. They eat, sleep, and dream about the beautiful game, practising regularly at home and school. 

So when news arrives of summer trials at All Cultures United FC, the boys jump at the chance to try out, hoping they'll both be picked for the under-nines team by legendary Coach Reece.

Frustratingly, the trials don't go quite as planned, and when team bully Hassan pipes up—and training for a big match intensifies—there are turbulent times ahead for Shay and Frankie's friendship.

Baller Boys is an endearing illustrated mid-grade chapter book set in multicultural North London. It's also the debut of author and teacher Venessa Taylor who was inspired by real-life events and a desire to enthuse reluctant readers, especially boys.

The book is well-researched with loads of authentic football-speak thrown in—Taylor's understanding of the junior team selection process and coaching feels extremely genuine.

What's even more impressive is Taylor's ability to give all characters, from diverse cultural/ethnic backgrounds, space to be heard within the story. We hear about the wide-ranging real-life challenges faced by each boy in the squad, such as crippling shyness, asthma, nut allergies, and ADHD. Details of these issues are so well-observed and explored with great thoughtfulness. 

Refreshingly, some of the parents are named characters who not only actively support the boys in their footballing ambitions but express innermost feelings to which, adult readers can relate. For example, the moment Tina realises she has failed to notice Frankie's vision disorder was particularly touching. 

As the book was written in the spirit of diversity and inclusivity, I wondered whether the addition of girls to the football squad would have felt more up to date, especially as mixed youth teams are growing in prevalence in the UK (see below). The inclusion of female players would not have made the story less boy-friendly in my view. On the contrary, it could only help foster positive attitudes towards girls' involvement in competitive football.

Overall, Baller Boys astutely encapsulates the highs and lows of childhood friendships—squabbles, jealously, wounded pride are all worked through on the football pitch. Fans of the game will love it!

Resources for teachers and parents

FA raised the mixed-team age limit to 18  

Baller Boys website

Guide for teachers and parents

Genre	Narrative: stories with specific topics of interest
Child-led interests (EYFS)	Football
Age group (EYFS, KS1, KS2)	KS2 (lower)
Curriculum links/topics (EYFS/NC)	English: Reading comprehension (Y3/4) – listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks  using dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read  increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally  identifying themes and conventions in a wide range of books  checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding and explaining the meaning of words in context  asking questions to improve their understanding of a text  drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence  predicting what might happen from details stated and implied  participate in discussion about both books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say. PE: play competitive games, i.e. football
Suitability	class/school library; great independent reader; home reader
General features	third-person narration; informal dialogue; chapters

All the Black children's books that I review are checked against my Jericho Benchmark.