"A new girl has joined Lola Levine's second-grade class. When they get off on the wrong foot, they are forced to spend time together ... and learn they have more in common than they thought"--

Twelve-year-old Golden Maroni starts eighth grade determined to be master of his universe, but learns he cannot control everything on the soccer field, in his friendships, and especially in facing his father's incurable disease.

With the playoffs over, Devin and her seventh-grade friends decide to try out for a soccer travel team, but friendships are threatened because not everyone makes it on to the tough, competitive team, and in the mean time the girls are faced with a crisis--budget cuts threaten to eliminate the soccer program at the elementary school Devin's little sister attends.

Devin visits her best friend, Kara, in Connecticut but the visit goes very badly, distracting Devin just before the Kicks' first playoff match.

When soldiers attack a small village in Zimbabwe, Deo goes on the run with Innocent, his older, mentally disabled brother, carrying little but a leather soccer ball filled with money, and after facing prejudice, poverty, and tragedy, it is in soccer that Deo finds renewed hope.

Quiet, sensitive Faith starts middle school already worrying about how she will fit in. To her surprise, Amanda, a popular eighth grader, convinces her to join the school soccer team, the Bloodhounds. Having never played soccer in her life, Faith ends up on the C team, a ragtag group that's way better at drama than at teamwork. Although they are awful at soccer, Faith and her teammates soon form a bond both on and off the soccer field that challenges...

When Emma and her brothers and sisters want to get a kitten and another ferret, and Emma wants their nanny to be the chaperone on her soccer team trip instead of her mother, the children decide to go on strike to try to force their parents to meet their demands.