Sports Illustrated KIDS Graphic Novels, is a set of sports related stories. What is a graphic novel? It is a novel in comic-book format. It is not a comic strip. In
Soccer Longshot we follow Matty Drake, a 14 year old forward on the Strikers. When the Strikers come up short in a game that they should have won, Matty seeks help. He finds the help he is looking for when he discovers a group of streetball kids. Matty tells them his name is
"Sam". Lola, who the other streetball players consider to be their captain, calls him
"Sammy". After picking up some pretty amazing moves from Lola,
"Sammy" asks her where she learned her moves. Lola explains she learned her moves from watching Pele videos.
"Sammy" has no idea who Pele is, but is blown away when he sees the famous soccer player and all his moves on the video tapes.
"Sammy" borrows one of videos to help improve his skills. He continues playing on both teams and the Strikers notice his intensity and improvement. Then one day the Strikers have a run in with the streetballer players. What will happen when Matty's two teams face off against each other? Will the streetball players realize that their
"Sammy" is really one of the key players for the Strikers? This graphic novel starts with stats about the main characters and concludes with facts about the game.
