Book Review: Team Fugee

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley and I thank them very much!

Team Fugee is one of a set of novels that focus on soccer and the experiences of child refugees leaving their home and making a new one in North America. I have not read any of the other novels in this series and I am probably not inclined to after reading Team Fugee. I teach middle school children in Toronto, Ontario in Canada. The children who are adopted in this novel end up in Scarborough (a suburb in Toronto) and soccer is a sport that many children have a huge interest in because of our FIFA team and their success. It is great that a series of books are dedicated not only to the popular sport but also one that discusses what some of the refugee experience might be like. I think that it is an important topic that should have lots more novels dedicated to it, at all reading levels, so children can either learn about what that experience might be like, or see their experience reflected in a story.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this novel and I don’t think it is one that children will enjoy either. The writing style was too glib and it seemed like the author was trying to check off a whole bunch of boxes rather than tell a sincere, heartfelt story. I think children, at least the ones I teach, will see through this and not connect. I didn’t connect with either the characters, the situations all seemed forced and the entire storyline was predictable and boring. It had the feeling of a story being created in a “boardroom of executives” saying oh lets have them move into a diverse neighbourhood so they can relate (check), oh wait let’s have the mother be the doctor (check)  and so on throughout the whole novel.

The story is simple enough. Ozzie and his sister Rachel are adopted from Nigeria to Canada. There is no formal soccer program at Ozzie’s school and they are forced to share a field with the Syrian refugees. There is an altercation with Victor, the leader of the Syrian refugee soccer students and principal decides they should have a soccer showcase to settle the matter.

Although this isn’t something I would use in my classroom, with my students, it might be something that I would offer in my classroom library to at least see if there was any student interest. If some of my students pick it up and read it, I will ask for feedback. In the end, it is their opinion of the book that matters.