Before she was scoring goals, Becky Sauerbrunn was just a kid trying to fit in. Learn more in this first book in a middle grade nonfiction series about the childhoods of your favorite athletes! Becky Sauerbrunn, a defender on the United States women’s national soccer team is known for her tough, no-quit attitude. In one game, she broke her nose and it never occurred to her to leave the field until she saw the horrified reaction from her teammates and coaches. She learned how to be tough from a childhood of being the younger sister to two older brothers. To play with her big brothers, Becky would let them duct tape plywood to her forearms so she could play street hockey goalie and more! But Becky’s brothers helped her in another important way—encouraging her lifelong passion for books and reading. In fact, she believes that reading has helped train her brain for the kind of problem-solving challenges she faces on the field, defending the most talented forwards in the world. Gr 4–7—In soccer, Rebecca "Becky" Sauerbrunn is known for her superb accomplishments, physical ability, and fierce determination. Born in 1985, she grew up in a St. Louis suburb as the youngest child and only daughter in her family. Her stamina in sports can be traced back to life with two older brothers whose playful antics did not deter her one bit. In elementary school, she was often the only girl on the soccer team. As she became older, she distinguished herself in awesome ways and made indelible impressions on her various coaches. Her passion for soccer and learning was remarkable. The author, a former sports journalist, does a commendable job in describing this athlete. The writing is engaging and presents a balanced viewpoint—Seigerman does point out areas where Sauerbrunn fell short. He elaborates on contributions Sauerbrunn is making to the future of women's soccer, particularly her involvement in the 2016 complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding wage inequity among women's and men's national soccer teams. VERDICT An insightful biography of a leading soccer star, and an easy addition to middle grade nonfiction collections.—Jeanette Lambert, formerly at Nashville-Davidson County Schools David Seigerman is a veteran sports journalist whose writing career began in newspapers ( Newsday , The Jackson Sun ) and moved on to magazines ( College Sports Magazine ). In 1996, he moved from print to broadcast media, becoming a field producer for CNN/SI and later the managing editor at College Sports Television. Since 2003, he has been a freelance writer and producer, and in late 2016, he cofounded HowFarWouldYouGo.org. He lives in Westchester County, New York, with his family. Becky Sauerbrunn CHAPTER 1 FACING A CHALLENGE . . . LITERALLY Oh, man. That really hurt. Fifty-nine minutes into the first soccer game she ever played for the US Women’s National Team, Becky Sauerbrunn realized something was wrong. She had just tried something she’d done on the soccer field a thousand times before: battling an opposing player for a ball in the air. Becky attempted to knock the ball upfield with a flick of her head. The forward from Canada’s Women’s National Team had other plans; she wanted to head the ball past Becky and in the direction of the Team USA net. It was a typical soccer moment in the middle of a typical soccer game. Only this time, the Canadian player missed. Instead of striking the ball with her head, she accidentally headed Becky sharply and squarely in the middle of her face. And, man, did it ever hurt. For perhaps the first time in her soccer career, Becky wasn’t sure what to do next. She had never been hurt on a soccer field before, at least not to the point of having to leave a game. During her four seasons at the University of Virginia, she had missed a total of ten minutes of game time; she probably couldn’t have given directions to the sidelines, she’d spent so little time there in college. Should she take a knee, as players are coached to do from their earliest days, when they’re learning to dribble a ball through a slalom course of mini orange cones spread out across a grassy patch in a neighborhood park? Should she try to get the referee’s attention, to stop play long enough to get checked out? This whole situation was new to Becky, the pain and the uncertainty. She did the one thing she surely knew how to do. She got up. Becky had decided she needed to shake it off, get back in position, and get ready for the next play. After all, this was her first taste of a dream in the process of coming true: She was playing for her country at her sport’s highest level. Years and years of practicing and playing, training and trying, working and waiting, had landed her here, inside the Foshan Sports Center Stadium in Foshan, China, at the 2008 Four Nations Tournament, starting on the back line of one of the best teams in the world of women’s soccer. After everything it took to get here, she wasn’t