Soccer World South Africa

Booklist September 2010—After the exciting 2010 World Cup in South Africa, young sports fans will grab this title in the Explore the World through Soccer series to follow up on the game and to learn more about the country. In a semi-fictionalized narrative, real-life professional soccer star Zohn tells how he meets Tawela, eight, a young Xhosa soccer player in Cape Town, and she serves as Zohn’s guide to both the game of soccer and her country as she discusses South Africa’s geography, history, crafts, language, and culture. Zohn sees the “Rainbow Nation,” where people of many cultures are learning to live together, and from the game reserve to the ocean to Tawela’s home, readers will be caught by the diversity, even as they read specific facts about the physics of surfing, the wonder of ancient cave paintings, and the biology of migrating whales. The text is overly exclamatory, but the open design and line-and-watercolor artwork will encourage browsing, and colored sidebars featuring science projects, crafts, and recipes add additional opportunities for interactive learning.
Jack Bell, New York Times May 2010— An early winner of the CBS show “Survivor,” Zohn took his $1 million prize and dived into the world of philanthropy with Grassroots Soccer (an organization that promotes AIDS awareness in Africa) and other projects. This is a children’s book written by a guy who is a child at heart.
Children's Literature Review June 2010 — Ethan Zohn, a real-life professional soccer player, invites the reader to take a trip with him to South Africa. He meets a new friend there, an eight-year-old girl named Tawela, who shows him how they play “street soccer” in her country. The two of them later travel to Johannesburg, where they watch a soccer match played in front of tens of thousands of people. Along the way, they visit unusual places and learn about the geography, customs, and cultures of South Africa. They also discover a wealth of information about physics, geology, and other sciences. This is that rare book that successfully combines history and science with human interest. Told in first person by Mr. Zohn, the story immediately captures and holds the attention of the reader. Mr. Zohn often addresses the reader with thought-provoking comments intended to get his audience to picture what life is like in other countries. The scientific information is reinforced by the inclusion in the book of simple experiments that children can perform with the aid of grown-ups. The book stresses the idea of soccer as a means to bring people together to build cooperation and understanding. Mr. Zohn and his co-author, David Rosenberg, emphasize that they “want to make a difference for those who need our help,” and at the back of the book they provide suggestions for readers on ways to support charitable groups benefiting South Africa. Mr. Zohn has proved himself to be an able ambassador for soccer and for people around the globe in this book, which is intended to be the first in a series of “Soccer World” books.
Tonic.com May 2010 — Ethan Zohn's children's book is simply the best .