A thirteen-year-old American girl plays on a fiercely
competitive boys' soccer team during the year her family spends
in Italy and experiences culture clashes both on and off the field.
WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING
What keeps this tale from being just another soccer story with
play-by-play action is the unique setting; the inventiveness of
the chapter headings, which consist of Italian words, pronunciations,
and definitions; and Irene’s determination.
School Library Journal
September, 2004
Soccer fans, especially girls, will appreciate the well-drawn action
sequences and Irene's feisty spirit.
Horn Book Guide
Fall, 2004
Pair the nonfiction books Girls' Soccer: Going for the Goal
and On the Field...with Mia Hamm with the fiction books
Defending Irene and The Million Dollar Kick to demonstrate
the expertise that girls have in soccer.
Library Sparks: March 2008
I love the way the author has translated the dialogue. The kids
are speaking in Italian, and even though she writes it all in English
(with a few Italian words we come to know sprinkled in), she conveys
the spirit of the Italian by using word choices and arrangements
a little different from colloquial English. It reminds me of native
German speakers speaking English.
 Sonderbooks
A selection to Nancy Keane's The Big Book of Teen Reading
Lists in the Girls in Sports category.
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