Home > Categories > Books > Kids - General > Tiny Timmy #1: Soccer Superstar review
Tim tries out for his school team but keeps getting pushed off the ball and does not make the side. The coach tells him he is just not big enough to cut it with the other kids. Devastated, Tim tries some unconventional ways to make himself taller, with not very successful but hilarious results. He finds the best thing to do is practice hard with his brothers and friends. Confronted with a tricky situation, Tim comes to realise that although he is not as big and tall as the other kids, he can jump really high. And because he has been practicing so much, he has better skills and shooting than the other kids. Will it be enough to earn him a place in the team?
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I picked to review this book as my 6 year old is on the smaller side for his age and he played soccer for his school last year so I thought it would fit in well with him as he can relate and I liked the idea of this book to give his confidence a boost.
I like how in the book Timmy is told he is too small and he tries lots of different crazy ways of getting bigger my 6 year old could relate to this as he always asks if he eats special food will he grow taller. It also showed my son that with lots of practice and hard work you can get better on your own and to not pay attention to the bullies, he really enjoyed this message in the book as we have encountered a few bullies this year. The message of this book is if you work hard and keep at it eventually things will happen for you. it's a great message as it can apply to all aspects of life and this message created a good conversation about what we can do to help with the goals he wants to achieve and the story was interesting enough to keep my 3 year old listening also.
We really enjoyed the simple drawings in the book and he loved how Timmy moves around when you flick through the book very fast. I think that even though this book is related to sports the message is strong enough that it will suit a wide range of people and ages and for $12 it would make a good read over the holidays.
I read Tiny Timmy to my eldest daughter over the course of a few days last week. She is not big into sports and has never played a team game like soccer before. So I wasn't expecting her to relate terribly to the story. However, I liked the storyline and I thought it was applicable to many situations in life, outside of sport as well.
In the book, Timmy is told he is too tiny for the school soccer team. So he goes through a few ridiculous methods trying to get bigger. On the flipside though, he also practices a lot and gets really good at his sport. My daughter could relate quite a bit to the bullying aspect of the book. The kids aren't being terribly mean, but there is one incident where I thought it would be classed as cyber bullying. She really connected with Timmy, where he was trying his hardest but didn't seem to have many on his side.
I liked that the book demonstrated that if you work hard, things can happen for you. We talk a lot about trying at home, so it was good to have a book showing us what could happen if you really knuckled down and gave something you were passionate about, a go. The neat thing was, that after reading it to my eldest, my 3 and a half year old wanted to listen to the story as well. She happily listened to two chapters a night. While it took a bit longer to get through the book, she was thrilled and cuddled up with it each evening.
She really liked the pictures and wanted to jump like Timmy. She also noticed the little picture of Timmy in the corner of each page. When you flip through the corner really fast, Timmy moves. She thought that was really neat and I saw her playing with the book a few times over the week. It was cool that she saw that when us older girls in the house didn't even see it! I think this book was great value for $12. We got through reading it twice and there has been plenty of play thanks to the flicker image. It would be a good summer reader for a confident reader, who likes soccer.
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