Children’s books

STRIKER BOY by Jonny Zucker (Frances Lincoln; €8.80). After a seven-year exile, David Cartwright and his son, Nat, return to England to settle in Lowerbury, close to their beloved Premiership club, Hatton Rangers.

Thirteen-year-old Nat is an extraordinary talent, so he is fast-tracked from the under-17s to the subs’ bench of Hatton Rangers first team. With four matches to go, Rangers look doomed, especially as one team member has been bribed to throw matches to ensure their relegation. When Nat discovers the identity of the “mole’’ he puts himself in mortal danger. In the last game, against Manchester United, no less, he comes on for the final 25 minutes, with the odds completely against his team. ! The characters and the high-octane atmosphere of the premiership world are impressively drawn. But would Nat, for all his precocious talent, really survive in a world peopled by Terry, Vidic, McShane et al? A gripping read for soccer fans.

Chalkline by Jane Mitchell (Walker; €7.55) is one of the candidates on this year’s shortlist for the Bisto Awards. The prologue takes the reader straight into the cold-blooded mindset of boy soldiers who, having been abducted from their homes, and trained with unspeakable cruelty, have fully adjusted to killing in the name of Allah. Thus we already know the fate of nine-year-old Rafiq when we meet him five years earlier as a happy youngster with a loving family. He is especially attached to his younger sister, Jameela. At school he is proud of being the tallest in his class. This changes his life forever when Kashmiri Freedom Fighters burst into the school and select boys whose heads are above a chalkline on the blackboard. The youngsters are taken to an isolated camp in the mountains where hunger and beatings gradually turn them into brutal automatons who will obey all orders without remorse. With carefully measured chapters alternating between Rafiq’s fate and his sister’s constant hope for his return, the story reveals a disturbing truth.