A trans boy who loves football (the U.K.-based author’s term for soccer) stars in this cheery, if pedagogical, story that shows him and supportive adults working to help him be accepted by his team.
Jacob, his parents, and sister love to support their local football team, Paston City, and Jacob dreams of playing for the team and winning the league. He used to play for a girls’ team, he tells us in the first-person narrative, but after he came out as transgender, started playing for a boys’ team.
Jacob then explains to readers what it means to be transgender (“when I was born, doctors said I was a girl, but I realized that I’m a boy”), and how his parents supported him in his transition by using his requested name and pronouns, letting him have the clothes and haircut he wanted, and explaining to the coach of the boys’ football team that Jacob was trans.
While the coach was welcoming, though, some of the boys at his school were not, and said mean things—even though “Being transgender is nothing to be ashamed of,” as Jacob reassures readers. Still, on the day of a big match, his teammates wouldn’t pass him the ball, and even tackled him to take it away. When the team lost, they blamed Jacob, saying, “You kick like a girl.”
The coach stepped in to tell the boys that they were bullying Jacob and must instead work together as a team if they want to win. The boys apologized, but Jacob wasn’t sure if they meant it. Before the next game, however, the other boys told him that the coach arranged a meeting with a youth worker from a local LGBTQ+ group. The person explained what it means to be trans and answered people’s questions.
This calmed Jacob’s nerves, and apparently was enough to change the other boys’ minds, since they pass him the ball during the next match, and he gets to take a penalty kick. The story closes with the coach telling Jacob that scouts from Paston City will be watching next season. If he’s good enough, Jacob says, he’ll even get to play for Paston City when he’s older—and a final image shows a grown Jacob raising the trophy cup as he says triumphantly, “So I will get to win the league!”
The story has a clear instructional purpose and takes a perhaps overly optimistic approach to the coach’s acceptance and the teammates’ rapid change of heart. (Adults may also want to explain to young readers that “You kick like a girl,” while wielded here as an insult, should not, in fact, be used as one.) Nevertheless, the story conveys the joy that can be if trans youth are affirmed and supported. The image of Jacob as a grown-up is powerful, too, showing young trans boys that they can have a bright future. This story isn’t just for trans boys, however; cisgender children with trans teammates may learn important lessons, too—as may the adults in their lives. If you’re seeking to convey such lessons, this is a recommended tale.
Jacob and his family are White.
