Soccer Star!

John Walker is a professor of Spanish studies at Queen’s University.

With the growing popularity of soccer in Canada at both the grassroots
and national levels, one is beginning to see an increased production in
fiction for young soccer fans. In a field previously dominated by
stories about hockey, basketball, and baseball, James Lorimer’s Sports
Stories has added eight soccer novels, of which Soccer Star! is the most
recent. It tells the story of Samantha Aqsarniq Keyes, whose
soldier-mother is from Nunavut. Sam’s Inuit name, Aqsarniq, comes from
a legend about the northern lights representing the souls of the dead
playing a game of heavenly soccer. Like many other “army brats” in
Canada, Sam moves with her family from base to base, but she is always
conscious of her Inuit heritage.

One of the constants in Sam’s busy life is her soccer, which she has
played in various new hometowns, whether it be in New Brunswick or
Alberta. Now aged 13, she has some hard choices to make. Although she
has always loved soccer, her growing involvement as an actor in the
school play causes problems at home and in school. Her parents have
always insisted on only one after-school activity, which previously has
always been soccer. Now Sam has to fit in her drama interests and her
love of soccer with the demands of school work and family life.
Relations with a school soccer rival and a theatre friend complicate her
life even more.

This entertaining story about different aspects of Canadian life (First
Nations, the military, school, soccer, theatre) conveys important
lessons about teamwork and loyalty, honesty, and responsibility—not to
mention the fun and excitement of playing soccer. Highly recommended.