WORLD TEAM

At the same moment around the world, kids are playing, watching, or thinking about soccer. In Italy, “Gianni skips along the street never taking his eyes off the ball. ‘This header for a golden goal,’ he imagines. And in the early morning in Rio de Janeiro, Tico is also dreaming of World Cup glory. ‘When I grow up, my friends will all see me score the winning goal!’ ” Each double-page painting shows the child in his home town, while two lines of text across the bottom describe the setting and quote the child expressing his love for the game. All of the players, except for the New Yorker, are boys. There is a nice mix of urban and rural scenes (though, typically, all the Europeans are urban, all the Africans rural). Though readers may be drawn to the book by the love of the sport, there’s little here beyond the conceit of “One big round world, one small round ball.” Vyner’s realistic-but-gritty-edged paintings do better justice to landscape and detailed scenery than they do to the action of the game. A possibility for classroom use, kids will find this enjoyable enough, but thin. (Picture book. 4-7)