Thursday 18 April 2019

"Ultimate Football Heroes: Kelly Smith" by Charlotte Browne (Dino Books)

We're delighted to find that the fantastic "Ultimate Football Heroes" series finally reflects the sheer excellence of women's international and league football at long last.

Though we're not footie fans, we most certainly know who Kelly Smith is, and Charlotte Browne's new book in this fab series charts her life and achievements perfectly.

By the time Kelly Smith was nine years old, she was already so good she was running rings around the boys at her local club and scoring goals for fun.

But angry parents complained she was making their sons look silly, and Kelly had to move to a girls' team (ugh...wouldn't you love to live in a world where this sort of stuff didn't happen, and where sports was just "sports" - not women's sports / men's sports?)

From that day, she knew she had to be twice as skillful and brave as any boy to succeed in the game she loved.

"Smith" is the story of how the girl from Watford refused to be held back, and became an Arsenal superstar and the England women's national team's top scorer.

Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life-stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to super-star professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A hugely inspirational superstar, Kelly Smith's story is every single bit as interesting as any of the overpaid male football superstars.

"Ultimate Football Heroes: Smith" by Charlotte Browne is out now, published by Dino Books (kindly supplied for review).