Published originally in the United Kingdom, this unusual novel won the 2004 Branford Boase Award and was short-listed for the Nestle Children's Book Prize. Framed as an interview between a South American sports reporter and the world's best soccer goalkeeper, the now 30-year-old El Gato relates how he developed his skills, achieved great fame, and won the coveted World Cup. His story is one of poverty and isolation in a small logging community, of strong family ties in a beloved jungle being inexorably denuded, and of intense focus on the game of soccer. If a coming-of-age tale meeting an environmental message framed by sports narrative weren't enough, a mystical element is added, as El Gato describes his rigorous soccer training by a ghost in a magical clearing hewn from dense foliage. El Gato's remembrances do not consistently take the reader with him, and disparate elements don't always gel. Rich depictions of family and forest are marred by stilted, implausible dialog and choppy transitions between present and past. With its lengthy descriptions of the game, this may appeal most to soccer fans.

Soccer sensation El Gato relates how a ghostly coach trained him to be the world's best goalie--in a pristine playing field smack dab in the middle of a South American jungle. Like Shoeless Joe (the basis for the movie Field of Dreams), this novel is an appealing and poignant blend of magical realism and sports fiction.

This stirring adventure—a soccer story? a ghost story?—defies expectations. Soccer reporter Paul Faustino is thrilled to have an exclusive interview with brilliant goalkeeper El Gato, whose team just won the World Cup. El Gato offers the incredulous reporter an unbelievable tale. As a child, the goalie explains, he was terrible at sports in a soccer-mad town, so he retreated to the jungle his village found frightening but he found beautiful. In the jungle's darkest tangles, he encountered a mysterious goalkeeper who drilled him mercilessly for two years. When El Gato left his secret training to become a logger like his father (against his mother's wishes, who wanted her son to go to college and become a scientist), he discovered he'd become a world-class goalie. El Gato's mystical revelations are saturated with reverence for the vanishing jungle, and his too-perfect soccer ability is tempered by the confusion of a grown man who wants a life his adored parents would not have chosen. Both lyrical and gripping. (Fiction. 12-16)

Gr 8 Up-When acclaimed South American journalist Paul Faustino begins his interview with World Cup soccer star El Gato, he expects to be recording the thoughts of a goalkeeper at the height of his career. He never envisioned hearing about a young, lonely boy growing up in the middle of a rain forest, who wandered upon a mysterious soccer field and an apparition that appeared to him daily and trained him to become the greatest goalkeeper ever known. Is El Gato mad? Is he suffering from hallucinations due to the stress of the game? Is there some truth to be discovered in his fantastic tale? Only at the conclusion of the interview and the resolution of who the Keeper really is and what he is waiting for will readers even think of putting down this fascinating book. Peet achieves his expressed desire "to write an entirely new kind of soccer story," not only including the experience of play, but also mesmerizing readers with a supernatural mystery in a tale about relationships, loneliness, and believing in oneself. This is a well-written, fast-paced sports story that addresses far more than just the sport itself. Fans of Chris Crutcher's sports-themed novels will want to pick up this selection by a new and talented writer.-Kathryn Childs, Morris Mid/High School, OK Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Peet's first teen novel tells the fictional life story of El Gato, the world's most famous soccer goalkeeper. The tale is sometimes told through an interview format as El Gato sits one-on-one with the top soccer journalist of South America. El Gato's tale is no ordinary one. As a young teenager from a small South American logging town, El Gato disappears into the rainforest each day to learn his trade from a mysterious apparition known as the Keeper. This supernatural training leads him to the ultimate success in soccer, winning the World Cup. El Gato then returns to the rainforest with the trophy and uses it to release the Keeper and his ghostly teammates by presenting them with the trophy that they should have won many years ago. This novel will be a decent addition to collections, but its appeal is limited. There are times when the story bogs down with detailed descriptions that might be too technical for the casual fan. Soccer fans and players will enjoy the book, but less-devoted fans or readers with no interest in soccer will find it dull. For fans, though, this book would be an excellent transition from the easier chapter books by authors such as Matt Christopher. Purchase only for libraries where sports books-especially those on soccer-are popular.-David Goodale.