Are you looking for a children's football book to give as a Christmas gift? If so, you might be interested to know that Bullfinch Books is publishing football picture book on November 17, 2020.
Europe At Feet is the follow-up to another children's football book, World At Your Feet.
Whereas World At Your Feet celebrated the most memorable goals ever scored at global international football tournaments, Europe At Your Feet features some of the best and most iconic goals ever scored at European Championships.
Unlike some children's football books, Europe At Your Feet doesn't just reel off facts and figures about the game. Instead each goal is brought to life in the rhyming verse beloved by readers so many of the best picture books.
Author Rob Parker captures each of the goals in rhyming commentary that puts the reader at the heart of the action. In fact, each goal is described in the second person so that 'you' the reader take the place of the goalscorer.
Each goal is given a double-page spread in the book, with illustrator Lawerta capturing the movement and colour of the beautiful game with some vivid artwork.
Great goals scored by the likes of Paul Gascoigne, Marco van Basten and Cristiano Ronaldo are among those featured. The goals are picked from throughout the history of the European Championships, right back from the 1970s through to the most recent edition of the tournament in 2016.
As such, it's a great way to feed a young football fan's enthusiasm for the game and start to educate them on its rich history.
In that regard, it's similar to a debut children's football book World At Your Feet, which got fantastic feedback for the role it had played in helping parents to share their love of football with their kids.
Customer Nick Ahmed told us: "I was using my memory to read football stories to my son. Thanks to your we now both enjoy this."
And Jamie Cottrell said: "Bought this for my son’s pre World Cup bedtime reading. He loves it. Great book.
"Jake made me show him every one of the goals on YouTube after he read it.
"It's a really good way of getting them interested. He was asking if the goals were real as he was reading it. Even comparing the kits and numbers to the videos to make sure I wasn't lying to him."
Adam Jevons-Newman, who also happens to be a teacher, wrote: “Bought this as a bedtime story for our little one but has great classroom potential to incorporate and inspire writing/poetry around football.”
Adam's absolutely correct in that assessment. Children at schools that have copies of World At Your Feet have already produced some incredible work. Take a look at some of the football poems and illustrations created by pupils at Doveridge Primary School in Derbyshire.
Of course, the beauty of a children's football book - whether at home or in school - is that it has the potential to encourage even reluctant readers to delve into a book. For kids who would rather be outside with a ball and have mistakenly come to believe that books are not for them, a children's football book like World At Your Feet or Europe At Your Feet challenges that.
Mr Field, whose class did the work we mentioned above, told us: "Certain boys who had previously been reluctant readers have been thoroughly engaged with the colourful illustrations and poems about famous football goals. It has promoted a love of poetry across the year group and has led to engaging conversations about the text."
Mr Field's pupils were in Year 4 and aged 8 or 9 at the time they read World At Your Feet. The book was enjoyed by lots of kids aged between 6 and 10. Equally, we heard lots of stories of children younger than that enjoying the book with their parents (and of football fans of all age loving the illustration, rhymes and reliving goals of yesteryear). We think Europe At Your Feet will be a children's football book that has just as wide an appeal to fans of all ages.
With all those bases covered, it's also worth mentioning that both Europe At Your Feet and World At Your Feet is printed on nice, heavy paper. It feels good to hold and it makes for a lovely gift.
And they're made by an independent publisher, who values every single book sale. So if shopping indie and shopping small is important to you, our books tick that box, too.
If you like the sound of our children's football books, we'd love it if you wanted to find out a bit more of them. You can see more of World At Your Feet here and Europe At Your Feet here.