Children's Books About Soccer

 Gooooooool, el mundial is here!

These are six children's books about soccer. Read and enjoy the World Cup. 

¡GOOOOL!: A Soccer Book for Kids 

Written by Mike Alfaro and illustrated by Gerardo Guillén.

Jump-start your little one’s love of sports with ¡GOOOOL!, a bilingual soccer book made for boys and girls who are ready to score goals!

Perfect for learning new words in Spanish and English, this durable board book introduces the exciting game of soccer while sharing messages of good sportsmanship and teamwork. Part of the beloved Sí Sabo Kids series, it celebrates the beautiful game in a fun, accessible way for babies, kids, and grown-up fans.

With bright illustrations and simple vocabulary all about the game of soccer, this Spanish book for kids makes learning feel like play and helps get the whole family ready for World Cup action!

A must-have for fans of early learning books in Spanish, bilingual books and fútbol-loving families—grab your copy and head to the pitch!

We Play Soccer / Jugamos al fútbol 

Written by René Colato Laínez and illustrated Nomar Perez. 

Joe speaks English. He loves soccer. José habla español. A José le gusta el fútbol. This English-Spanish bilingual story is now available as a board book!

Two boys, an English speaker and a Spanish speaker, are on the same soccer team. They have their uniforms and their cleats. They can both juggle the ball. And when the coach lets them in the game, both Joe and José score goals. "We win," says Joe. "Ganamos," says José.

A delightful reading experience, this book is perfect for toddlers in bilingual families. 

Lucía's Goals / Los goles de Lucía 

Written Angela Quezada Padron and illustrated by Christina Barragan Forshay.

In Lucía's small hometown, girls weren't supposed to play soccer and they definitely weren't supposed to be good at it either. But Lucía was determined to prove everyone wrong!

Whenever Lucía played soccer, she imagined herself as a professional futbolista. She sprinted and dribbled, headed and juggled, zigged and zagged, kicked her best kicks, and scored "Goal!" after "Goal!" After finally getting the chance to join an all-female soccer team, Lucía set her sights on becoming the best goal scorer anyone had ever seen.

Told in English and Spanish, Lucía's Goals / Los goles de Lucía is a rousing story about a young girl's determination to defy gender stereotypes and break through barriers. Lucía's story will inspire readers of all ages to take charge on and off the field to achieve their GOALS!

Pele, King of Soccer/Pele, El Rey del Futbol

Written by Monica Brown and illustrated Rudy Gutierrez.

This acclaimed bilingual children’s book, Spanish/English, is a fun way to introduce simple words and phrases in both languages and is sure to be a welcome resource at home and in schools and libraries.

Monica Brown and Rudy Gutierrez team up to deliver what Kirkus called, in a starred review, an “inspiring blend of art and story,” about the most famous soccer star in the world, Pelé.

This bilingual picture book will inspire, teach, and amaze readers as they learn about the man who revolutionized the sport of soccer. 

Do you know how a poor boy from Brazil who loved fútbol more than anything else became the biggest soccer star the world has ever known? This is the true story of Pelé, King of Soccer, the first man in the history of the sport to score a thousand goals and become a living legend.

Rudy Gutierrez’s dynamic illustrations make award-winning author Monica Brown’s story of this remarkable sports hero come alive!

Lionel Messi A Little Golden Book Biography

Written by Roberta Ludlow and illustrated Nomar Perez.

Help your little one dream big with a Little Golden Book biography about Argentine professional footballer Lionel Messi! Little Golden Book biographies are the perfect introduction to nonfiction for young readers—as well as fans of all ages!

Lionel Messi is widely regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time! This Little Golden Book Biography about the record-smashing star forward for Argentina, FC Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, and Inter Miami is an inspiring read-aloud for young readers.

¡Juguemos al fútbol y al football! 

Written by René Colato Laínez and illustrated Lancman Ink. 

Carlos is not sure that his favorite sport can be played with an oval-shaped ball. Chris is not sure that it can be played with a round ball. It may not be a good idea to play with a kid who is so different! He doesn't even know how to play this game! Wait-it looks kind of fun! Let's give it a try!

Guest Columnist: Margaret Elysia Garcia

 Editor's Note: La Bloga-Tuesday welcomes Guest Columnist Margaret Elysia Garcia with this account of her voyage to Cuba. Margaret will be joining La Bloga as our newest regular columnist. Her column will appear on Saturdays.

A Political Poet in Cuba             

Margaret Elysia Garcia

What do you do for fun? I’m still processing this last week that saw me accompanying political poet Matt Sedillo on a trip to participate in the 32^nd Annual Festival Internacional de Poesia de la Habana. It’s a strange time to be Americans traveling to Cuba. We felt the angst of knowing that there were American aircraft carriers not too far from Cuba’s shoreline. We have the example of the kidnapping of Maduro in Venezuela. 

The American president had already made threats to take out Raul Castro. These factors alone made it an iffy time to come to Cuba. It felt less strange on a full American Airlines flight from Miami to Havana. We’d also heard the American press over the last several weeks speak about shortages, black outs, trash not being picked up—indeed the president had echoed these sentiments claiming that Cuba needed saving from communism and could use America’s help to free it of dictators. We kept an eye out for the American news media’s assertions of the direness of Cuba, of its impending doom.

                  The Cubans seemed chill. No one was worried about the United States bombing or taking out Raul Castro. We saw no police in the streets.

                  We got to our hotel, jet-lagged from the red-eye and plopped down into the aromas of Havana:  sweet fruits, and something meaty frying somewhere and tropical sweat and always the faint smell of cigar/cigarette smoke. If that didn’t sound like a delicious combination, trust me that it did its magic. I felt like I was wilting most of the time in the humidity but at the same time humidity means vibrance. Every flower, every deep green. Everyone I met. Matt seemed both entranced and informed by previous trips there. He noticed things I wouldn’t have known. There were less cars on the streets and less beggars too this time around. He’d last been here in 2022 for the festival and before that 2019. 

                   It was my first time in Cuba, and I was thrilled to be reciting my poems twice a day for five days—never repeated the same poem twice. We read all over El Vedado—the relatively more modern section of the city where energy seemed to be plentiful and blackouts did not occur in the week we were there. We read our poetry to students at a local junior high, at an art studio with a well-known Cuban artist welcoming us and introducing us to his students. We read in parks. We read with men and women poets from across the Americas: Mexican poets, Salvadoran, Honduran, Venezuelan, Ecuadoran, Italian, Kenyan and of course Cuban. We read at cultural centers and theatres. We read at an outdoor bar on our second to last night there.

   It was refreshing to see how interested the Cuban people were in poetry—how celebrated all the arts were, really. As an American, I get too used to disrespect and ambivalence from a mainstream audience and a miniscule reading public. Poetry in Los Angeles is often provincial, and one gets the sense that people are not experimenting with language, themes, or structure or pushing themselves to the next level. We often tend toward confessional but more towards Rupi Kaur and less towards the pinnacle of Anne Sexton. Cuba blew us both away in that respect. So much great poetry that spoke to the world and to the crisis of imperialism. To see so many people come out to hear poetry was nothing short of amazing. We were in awe.

                   It was Matt’s third time in Cuba and second time participating in the festival. He wrote a new piece specifically for Cuba as it once again faces the dire consequences of not succumbing to American imperialism. On the late afternoon of our first day, he recited the poem in a small musty theatre with Cuba’s Minister of Culture in the audience, who took notice of the American poet who proudly proclaimed he was not representing as an American but as a Chicano from Los Angeles. “Let Cuba Live” became the star poem of the festival and on that Saturday, it was recited at our final reading at an outdoor cultural center with TV crews from the local Havana news station covering the event. The Minister of Culture took a liking to Matt Sedillo and had him as a guest of honor for dinner that first night.

                  I, a newbie, and a Chicana who was not passing as Chicana in Cuba due to my poor Spanish skills (I got mistaken for being Chilean once?), who is not an internationally recognized poet to that degree—did not get the invite to eat dinner with the Minister of Culture but instead wrote in my journal and had two of many espressos I had that week. I sat on the terrace overlooking the street and looked down on the garbage below. There was no food in it so there was no smell of rot. I thought about the countries and states I’ve been too that had open sewers or bad plumbing: South Korea. Laos. Indiana. Mississippi. I thought of the trash and debris and homeless encampments in downtown Los Angeles, under bridges in Oakland. I thought about the PGE blackouts in the Sierras—I once endured two weeks’ worth.  We didn’t necessarily see the food shortages. But as we often missed buses that week and had to walk miles a day to our various destinations, I didn’t feel like we’d gotten sheltered from the truth or steered away from it. Many people are thin here. I thought of the hungry people I know in the USA. Those that have no place to live and are always in danger of homelessness. I saw obvious homelessness in Havana. When I met up with Matt for breakfast at the hotel, he concurred what I’d both seen and not seen.

                  On our second day, Matt Sedillo, of the better Spanish than me, arranged last minute for a field trip to Che Guevara’s house and museum. That was a trip. Ever land some place and not think twice about what you will see and see something wild in the back of your head you probably always wanted to see? That would be Matt and I at Che Guevara’s house/museum where we were the only visitors that afternoon. Likewise, the Bay of Pigs cannons nearby. The house was modest, like you’d expect, filled with photos of the famous and infamous who had visited him there including many photos of Che with Salvador Allende.  I loved that his typewriter and camera were there under glass. Tons of photos of his life and reference to his too early death by the hands of CIA operatives in Bolivia. Matt was also recognized on the street a few times as the political poet from the United States—the Chicano from California.

                  Next, we got to visit Casa de las Americas. Casa del as Americas was founded in April 1959 just four months after the Cuban Revolution as a way of developing socio-cultural ties between Cuba, other Caribbean nations, and Latin American countries. It has served as a publishing house, information center, cultural center, library and museum. Matt’s book, Mexican Style, which was released in 2025 by Flower Song Press, is now part of the library catalog along with my poetry chapbook Iconistas which celebrates Mexican Revolutionary women. It was a next level bucket list achievement to know one’s book is in the most important cultural institution on the island. I could sense too that Matt felt the achievement in his book being added to the collection. The excitement and significance of this was palpable.

                  We did experience one black out but that was in Old Havana at one of the old state-run hotels in the tourist district. We were looking for remnants of Ernest Hemingway’s time there and found his now closed watering hole. We found the best Ropa Viejo I’ve had in my life too. Many will say (including my husband) that we only saw the Cuba elected officials meant us to see. And while it’s true there were buses to take us places, it’s also true that 65% of the time, we didn’t make the bus and walked through many places that perhaps we weren’t meant to see. There was poverty. There were beggars. But none of it was beyond what I’d seen in the United States in our cities. And at least in Havana the homeless crisis was not nearly what we see here.

                  And then we were back to the pace of two big readings a day in sweltering tropical humidity. I must confess I was not well-versed in the who’s who of Cuban poetry. Matt Sedillo, on the other hand, like most topics tackled by the autodidact, knew of the entire pantheon of Cuban poetry. Which is why him getting to read his poetry in front of and with living legend Nancy Morejon was the highlight of his trip. Reading with one’s idols is a humbling experience, and Matt took it with the grace of a man both in deference of the elder stateswoman poet and as a poet who had the attention of every poet and Cuban cultural official there. Another highlight was reading at the National Library.

                  Can poetry change the world? Perhaps it can. The camaraderie of a few dozen poets goes a long way in making us feel un-alone in the world of literature and in the geopolitical world of the Americas. We felt changed. Can it call attention to the need for justice in the world? Absolutely. Matt’s poetry met the moment. Now, back in California we both have spoken about the renewed energy going to Havana has given us and given our work. I have the renewed energy of the activist I once was, and I know Matt –and his work which always tends towards chronicling Chicano history—is renewed as well. I know that Cuba is awaiting Matt’s next trip to Havana to celebrate his work that speaks not just to the Chicano experience or Mexican American experience but to the experience of all the Americas as we struggle towards a new solidarity. 

“Last Blue Moon” by Xánath Caraza

“Last Blue Moon” by Xánath Caraza

 

Art by S. Kalaher

Para la pintura de S. Kalaher

 

Brillan las aves en la bóveda nocturna para guiar a los búfalos en las ciudades sin océanos. Van tras la última luna llena del calendario maya, donde crece el trigo y se susurran poemas olvidados, entre los tornados de fuego. Los poemas crecen en las ramas de los álamos y esparcen su melodía sobre las olas de las praderas de jade, nuestros océanos de sabiduría, nuestras voces ancestrales. Los búfalos, marineros perdidos, persiguen la luna azul en el abierto cielo de la noche. Los corazones buscan la libertad en las praderas de malaquita. Un canturreo se enreda con la profunda esmeralda donde los marineros extraviados habitan. “Blue moon you left them standing alone” entona la poeta con el fuego de las praderas. Un búfalo solitario delinea un camino de plata.

 

Last Blue Moon

After the painting by S. Kalaher

By Xánath Caraza

Translation from the Spanish to the English by Stephen Holland-Wempe

 

Birds shimmer in the night sky to lead buffalo through landlocked cities.  These majestic prairie creatures aspire toward the last moon of the Mayan calendar, where wheat flourishes and forgotten poems whisper, among fire whirling tornadoes.  Poems grow on cottonwood branches and scatter their melody on prairie waves of jade, our oceans of wisdom, our ancestral voices.  Vanished seafaring buffalo chase the blue moon into the open night sky.  Their hearts seek freedom along malachite prairies.  A soft singing is tangled amid a vast emerald where wayward seafarers make their home.  “Blue moon you left them standing alone”, the poet melds with the fire laden prairie.  A sole buffalo traces a silver path.

 

“Last Blue Moon / Last Blue Moon” are part of the bilingual poetry collection Noche de colibríes (Pandora Lobo Estepario Press, 2014) by Xánath Caraza. Translated by S. Holland-Wempe.

 

Xanath Caraza

Art by Steven Kalaher. Cover art by Heriberto Luna.

Xanath Caraza

Photos by S. Holland-Wempe

 

 

Chicanonautica: Notes on My Notes

by Ernest Hogan

Some have said that my “Gonzo Science Fiction, Chicano Style” class is a bit disorganized. They also said that’s not necessarily a bad thing. So, since I don't want a rumor to start that I just babble for the hard-earned cash my students pay, I’m going over my notes.

Yes, I have notes. I try to keep it “gonzo,” but I do think about structure. Some have suggested that I publish them, but they aren’t meant for readers, just a listing of things to talk about. Not very comprehensible or entertaining.

I did start them with the idea that I would someday make them into a short book. Interspersed with blog entries about writing, it could be a thing, but with the book available would people still pay to take the course?

Maybe, since what makes it special is being interactive. 

Ideally, the course would become a nonstop creative free-for-all with the students all mercilessly grilling me and providing material that would result in us all writing some wild stuff and somehow, everything in the notes would be covered.

Unfortunately, most writing students are shy, introverted types, and can be intimidated by going face-to-face with a vato loco Aztec cyberpunk even in a Zoom meeting.

So I need the notes. The class consists of me shuffling through them and telling the twisted story of my life and career. I try to keep it entertaining.

I do feel that the best stuff comes from my dealing with what the students are bringing. Interaction. Confrontation. Gonzo.

I’ve been adding to the notes–I keep remembering things–and trying to put them in a structure that fits the format of a four-day class.

Usually, things happen that throw me off track. I look at notes and find that I’ve covered a lot of it already, which is good.

Creativity needs spontaneity.

And the class would be pretty lame if it was talking about creativity and not having it happen.

It also needs the structure I’m struggling to impose.

A high wire balancing act that could end it disaster, that gets so much better the closer you get to the edge . . .

And the notes have been evolving. Maybe I should make them into a book after all. I could write up what I say in the live class . . .

It won’t have the magic moments that can come from live, interactive experience, but it would, at the very least, be fun.

Ernest Hogan doesn’t believe in gurus but does have nearly fifty years of writing experience that can help and amuse.

Mamá the Alien / Mamá la extraterrestre- Paperback Edition

Written by René Colato Laínez

Illustrated by Laura Lacámara

*Publisher: Lee & Low Books

*Language: English, Spanish

*Print length: 32 pages

*ISBN-10: 1643797778

*ISBN-13: 978-1643797779

Mamá the Alien is now available in paperback edition!

In this lighthearted bilingual story, a young girl sees the word alien on her mother's immigration card and concludes that her mother must be from another planet.

When Sofia gets a peek at Mamá's Resident Alien card, she wonders: Is Mamá an alien from outer space? Sofia heads to the library to learn about aliens. Some have four fingers on each hand, and some have blue or green skin. But to Sofia, Mamá looks like a human mother!

Sofia is stuck figuring out this mystery until she sees her mom getting ready for her citizenship ceremony. That's when Sofia realizes that in English, an alien can be someone from another planet, and it can also be a person from another country.

Filled with imagination and humor, Mamá the Alien is a sweet and timely celebration of family, no matter where that family comes from. Even if it's outer space!

¡Mamá la extraterrestre ya esta disponible en edición de pasta blanda!

En esta alegre historia bilingüe, una niña ve la palabra alien en una tarjeta de imigración de su mamá y concluye que su madre debe ser alienígena.

Cuando Sofia ve una tarjeta de su mamá que dice Resident Alien, se pregunta: ¿podría ser mamá un alienígena, de otro planeta? Sofia va a la biblioteca para aprender sobre los extraterrestres. Algunos tienen cuatro dedos en cada mano y algunos tienen piel azúl o verde. ¡Pero para Sofia, mamá parece una madre humana!

Sofia se queda atascada con este rompecabeza hasta que ve a su mama preparandose para su ceremonia de ciudadania. Y es entonces que Sofia se da cuenta que en inglés, un alien puede ser alguien de otro planeta y también puede ser una persona de otro país. 

Lleno de imaginación y humor, este dulce libro es una oportuna celebración de la familia, no importe de donde vienen sus miembros. ¡Hasta si vienen del espacio sideral!

Review

"A delightful, original, clever, purposeful, multicultural alien tale." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"This heartfelt and humorous story is perfect for primary-school readers, as well as a useful way for parents or educators to introduce the topic of immigration. An author's note further explains the meaning of resident alien and will help readers understand the humor behind Sofia's misunderstanding. Acrylic-and-collage illustrations in cheery saturated tones showcase Sofia's wild imaginings and the story's joyful conclusion." -- Booklist

"Playful.... The pictures are pleasant-looking, the subject is important to address with young children, and the story makes for very easy reading in both languages." -- School Library Journal

René Colato Laínez was born in El Salvador. He is an award-winning author who holds an MFA in Writing for Children from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Críticas has called René's characters "immigrant heroes." He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

Laura Lacámara is both an author and illustrator of children's books. She is a popular presenter at schools, book festivals, libraries, and conferences, and is an active member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. A native of Cuba, she now lives in Venice, California, with her husband and their daughter.