The Dream Team: Jaz Santos vs. the World (The Dream Team, 1)

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By presenting complex concepts like mutual aid and self-organisation in much simpler terms that are relatable to children, Mante highlights the importance of community in a world that attempts to deny women and girls opportunities. So when her parents' fighting eventually leads to her mother moving out of the house, Jaz focuses all her energy on football, putting together a team that she hopes can win the Brighton Girls’ Under-11s Seven-a-Side Football Tournament. This is a funny book but there are also many opportunities to learn about football and real-life women football players.

This is a really important lesson in learning to put yourself in other people’s shoes and for children to try to understand each other better. The novel begins with Jaz feeling helpless with the direction of her life: she gets kicked out of the dance club, gets bullied by the VIP (Very Irritating People), and gets rejected from the school’s football team because she is a girl. By clearly listing the financial barriers girls and women face, Mante paints a realistic world and provides relatable solutions. I think they'd love how Jaz sees and reacts to her world, and would find themselves represented in one or more of the characters.Many young people will also empathise with Jaz when she is often punished for her reactions to another student’s behaviour and even wrongly accused of things that she didn’t do. While the book was written for children ages eight and up, there are many gems or quotes that I, an adult woman, needed to be reminded of. Mante shows that young girls need support and belief from the adults around them, as well as belief in themselves, to excel.

Sexism is addressed head-on and I particularly enjoyed the real-life information about women's football that is worked into the story. After spotting a flyer for a local girls’ football tournament, Jaz convinces a group of her classmates to form a team and enter the competition. It is so easy for children of this age to blame themselves and try to fix parent or family relationships and I think Mante does an incredible job of showing young readers that they are not responsible for their parents. The discrimination against Jaz as a girl wanting to be taken seriously in football (from both adults and children) feels frustrating and unfair, but Jaz is passionate and triumphant to show what can be achieved with a little determination. I gazed up at the luminous purple stars on my white ceiling and wished hard that I could be like one of them.We find her blaming herself for the troubles at home and feeling responsible for some adults’ incompetence.