Young Pele: Soccer's First Star

by Lesa Cline-Ransome (Author) James Ransome (Illustrator)

Young Pele: Soccer's First Star
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

How did a poor boy named Edson--who kicked rocks down roads and dribbled balls made from rags--go on to become the greatest soccer player of all time?

Here is the story of the boy who with great determination, lightning speed, and amazing skill overcame tremendous odds to become the world champion soccer star Pelé. Talented author/illustrator team Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome bring his inspirational story vibrantly to life. The theme of this Dragonfly Book is Sports.

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Paperback
$8.99

ALA/Booklist

Starred Review
With handsome oil paintings and a stirring story, this picture-book biography will first grab children with its action.

Review quotes

Starred Review, Booklist, September 1, 2007:
"With handsome oil paintings and a stirring story, this picture-book biography will first grab children with its action."
—Hazel Rochman

this book is awsome

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Lesa Cline-Ransome
Lesa Cline-Ransome is the author of numerous nonfiction and historical fiction titles for picture book, chapter book, middle grade, and young adult readers including Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams and The Power of Her Pen: The Story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel L. Payne. Her verse biography of Harriet Tubman, Before She Was Harriet was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and received a Jane Addams Children's Book Honor, Christopher Award, and Coretta Scott King Honor for Illustration. Her debut middle grade novel, Finding Langston, won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and received the Coretta Scott King Award Author Honor. She lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York with her husband and frequent collaborator, James Ransome, and their family. Visit her at LesaClineRansome.com.

Kaylani Juanita is an illustrator based in Fairfield, California, who illustrates inclusive picture books, editorial art, and afros. Her book Magnificent Bomespun Brown, written by Samara Cole Doyon, received the 2021 Coretta Scott King Honor Award for illustration. Her work has been recognized by Society of Illustrators, HuffPost, and BBC. California grown and raised, she studied at CalArts and California College of the Arts for a BFA in illustration. Her mission as an artist is to support the stories of the underrepresented and create new ways for people to imagine themselves. You can find her lurking in public secretly drawing strangers or writing nonsensical stories about who knows what.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780375871566
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Dragonfly Books
Publication date
September 20, 2011
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV004000 - Juvenile Fiction | Biographical | General
Library of Congress categories
Brazil
Soccer players
Pelae

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