The Breakfast Club Adventures by Marcus Rashford with Alex Falase-Koya

Marcus Rashford is a football star who plays for Manchester United and England. He is passionate about eradicating child food-poverty and increasing children's literacy and access to books. This novel has been released as part of Marcus Rashford's Book Club - a program in collaboration with Macmillan Children's Books, where Rashford chooses two books a year that are made accessible to under-privileged and vulnerable children aged 8-12 across the UK. This is the first book in the Book Club to have been co-written by Rashford himself. 

The story starts at breakfast club. Breakfast club is the supervised time before school where children are provided with something to eat along with the time to finish homework, catch up with friends or just relax before the school day starts. This is the perfect opportunity for kids to make new friends .. or start solving mysteries!

Twelve year old Marcus has lost his prized football over the school fence. He is resigned to never seeing it again until he receives a curious invitation to join the Breakfast Club Investigators (BCI). 

This kicks off (pun intended!) a whirlwind of adventure and mystery, while testing boundaries and exploring friendships. Marcus gets to know the other members of the BCI, expanding and challenging his pre-conceived ideas of them being just 'the new girl', 'the popular girl' and 'the arty loner'. He learns they have all lost things and they all need help. 

Their investigations challenge the BCI to face fears, think creatively and work together. There's a sub-plot regarding Marcus's relationship with his cousin and, after a falling out with the BCI, she helps him sort out his feelings by offering wisdom from a slightly older perspective. 

This book is very appealing to middle grade readers - it centres on the relationships and issues they face in real life, and has a variety of diverse characters as well as engaging fonts and illustrations. The mysteries are all neatly solved in the end (including a few surprise twists) and the heart-warming lessons learnt are delivered with fun. 

Themes: Friendship, Adventure, Bravery, Mystery.

Kylie Grant