Funny kid: Seriously soccer by Matt Stanton

Wannabe stand-up comedian Matt has commandeered the help of his long-suffering friend Hugo to video his public appearance on Redhill Street. Matt is nervous but the gig does not go well, no one seems to want to stop and hear his jokes, all just hurrying around to nearby Redhill Square. To find out what is going on Matt and Hugo follow, it seems the Redbacks soccer team are playing in a game broadcast on a big screen and the fans are gathering to watch, including mega fan Abby Purcell. When a soccer ball comes their way Hugo surprises Matt with his amazing ball skills, but when he passes the ball it hits Matt in the face. Matt doesn’t like sport and sport doesn’t like him, but he notices Abby, who also hates sport, has caught soccer fever along with thousands of others, watching and cheering their team on. Hugo points out that half a billion people watched the last soccer world cup, catching Matt’s imagination; he wants some of that attention for himself! In his dreams, soccer star Matt is the centre of attention, wowing fans with his skills but sadly dream skills don’t translate into real ones and at school he is back to hearing random soccer facts from Hugo. Matt’s grandpa tells him a stand-up comedian must go and find his audience so when Abby sets off after school to coach the Little Kickers team at the Redhill Soccer Club Matt has another brilliant idea, don’t all sports have half time shows?

This is the 14th book in the Funny Kid series with its familiar bold black and white cartoon characters on most pages adding to the action. As expected, Matt comes to realise that it is not enough to be funny, or to find an audience, he has to care about his audience so they can care about him. Fans of Funny Kid won’t be disappointed but the book also stands quite well alone; there are unexpected twists and turns in the plot and quite a lot to learn about soccer.

Themes: Comedy, Soccer, Friendship.

Sue Speck