Breathing Soccer.

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

This is Debbie Spring’s most recent foray into the field of children’s and young adults’ fiction. In Breathing Soccer the Thornhill, Ontario, resident has written an entertaining novel for young teens that combines the fun elements of soccer with the serious problems of children’s health and how it influences their participation in sport.

Lisa Jacobs, approaching her thirteenth birthday, suffers from asthma and has serious allergic reactions to the extent that her family doctor, Emerson, and her parents forbid her to play he favourite sport, soccer. Her parents’ protective stance causes problems not only at home but also on the field, where her coach and teammates have a hard time dealing with her ailment. As result Lisa and her friend Beth end up on the bench as subs. However, a new, young, enlightened medical specialist, Dr. Gellom, her friend Beth, and the influence of her two new coaches at Soccer Camp help to change the situation and improve Lisa’s spirits, not to mention her soccer skills.

This is an inspirational story in which the young protagonist refuses to give in to her illness and seeks inspiration from sports role models like Silken Laumann and kayaker Renn Crichlow, who triumphed in the face of physical adversity. The message for Lisa is: Be a champion. Work hard and be the best you can be. It has to be said that her teenage teammates are often mean, petty, and nasty, her boorish coach has a bad attitude — win at all costs — and some of the parents are less than understanding or sympathetic in the face of Lisa’s handicap. There is much medical talk in the novel about asthma, and advice on how to deal with it, such as the three As—Awareness, Action, Avoidance. However, in general, the message (from young Dr. Gellom) is that Lisa has to live with her illness, and she can lead a normal life and play soccer as long as she follows her regimen and the medical rules.

Despite her illness, Lisa and Beth show themselves to be good kids and good athletes, and with the help of the positive lessons learned at Soccer Camp from her two enlightened young coaches—not from her jerk of a team coach—the girls work hard and improve so much that they both become contenders for the Rep team, winning over the doubters—the parents, their teammates, and the coach. The message, as always, is clear: Champions never give up. Recommended.