Theme · Football
Football books for children: three picture books for young fans, and what the research shows
A footballing fairy, a girl whose shots curve the wrong way, a Cinderella story with a silver boot: there are picture books for children who love football, though fewer than you might expect. Below are three with publisher and age, and what a reading programme built around football clubs found. (In the US this is soccer: the books are the same, the word differs.)
What is known about football and reading, and what isn't
First, the limits. We found no study of why young children like football books. The best-known research is a programme for school-age children called Premier League Reading Stars, run in primary schools in England with football clubs and evaluated by Coventry University for the National Literacy Trust.1
What the evaluation found. In 2015/16, children who took part in school-based sessions were significantly more confident about their reading than a comparison group. Children whose sessions were delivered through a Premier League club also improved significantly more on a standardised reading test.1 The final analysis covered 279 children for the questionnaire and 261 for the reading test.
What that doesn't tell you. The programme is for school-age children and works through sessions with a tutor. It says nothing about picture books for four-year-olds, and it doesn't show that any one book helps any one child.
Three football picture books, checked
BookTrust's football list has 24 titles, and only two of them start below age 5.2 The three below are the ones for the youngest listeners.
The Footballing Fairy
Elli Woollard, illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich · Magic Cat · BookTrust: interest age 4 to 5, reading age 4 to 5
Femi the fairy loves football and kicks whatever she can find, which upsets the people of Fairyland. After a pumpkin lands in a bowl of soup, the King tells her to stick to flying. A rhyming story, with familiar fairy tales woven in, about following your dreams.
Sammy Striker and the Football Cup
Catherine Emmett, illustrated by Joe Berger · Macmillan Children's Books, 2023 · BookTrust: interest age 6 to 8, reading age 6+
Sammy takes her ball everywhere. After a national team coach invites her to join the squad, her shots start curving away from goal, and she must find the confidence to use her talent properly before an important match. A picture book in rhyme that BookTrust recommends for reading aloud.
The Perfect Match: A Football Fairy Tale
Chris Becker, illustrated by Dan Taylor · Nosy Crow, 2026 · BookTrust: interest age 3 to 7
A bedtime story with a Cinderella shape. Leo loves football but his brothers make him do the housework, until a magical helper takes him to a prince's game, where he scores the winning goal and loses a silver boot.
Football or soccer, and who plays
One sport, two words. British and Irish readers search for football books, American readers for soccer books. The three titles above come from BookTrust, a UK charity, and we haven't checked a picture book from the US for this page. If you read from the US, the stories will still work with the word soccer in them.
Girls and boys. Two of the three books have a girl at the centre, in The Footballing Fairy and Sammy Striker.34 Both are about doubt and persistence. If your child plays or wants to, you can choose who the player is.
Or a story of their own
If your child should be the hero
- Your child is picked for a team that has never won a match and works out, with the help of an unlikely coach, how to get the ball into the net.
- A football lands in the garden of the grumpiest neighbour on the street, and your child has to go and ask for it back.
- Your child plays in the final of the park tournament, with the whole family on the touchline and one very important penalty.
Frequently asked questions
- What age are football picture books for?
- BookTrust gives The Perfect Match an interest age of 3 to 7, The Footballing Fairy 4 to 5 and Sammy Striker 6 to 8. Most other titles on its football list are for 5 and up.
- Do football books help children read?
- One evaluation of a football-linked reading programme for school-age children found significant gains in reading confidence, and in reading ability when sessions ran through a club. It covers a programme with tutors and says nothing about individual books.
- Are there football picture books for girls?
- Yes. The Footballing Fairy and Sammy Striker and the Football Cup both have girls as the main players.
- Can our child be the player in the story?
- Yes. In your idea you say what position they play, who is on the team and what happens in the match.
Sources
- 1.Wood, C. and others (2016): Premier League Reading Stars, Evaluation Report 2015-2016. Coventry University for the National Literacy Trust.What it confirms: School-based sessions significantly improved reading confidence relative to controls; sessions through a Premier League club also improved reading ability; analysis of 279 children (questionnaire) and 261 (reading test).
- 2.BookTrust: Fantastic football books (booklist).What it confirms: A list of 24 football books; only two start below age 5.
- 3.BookTrust Bookfinder: The Footballing Fairy.What it confirms: Elli Woollard and Irina Avgustinovich, Magic Cat; interest age 4 to 5, reading age 4 to 5; the plot.
- 4.BookTrust Bookfinder: Sammy Striker and the Football Cup.What it confirms: Catherine Emmett and Joe Berger, Macmillan Children's Books, 2023; interest age 6 to 8, reading age 6+; the plot.
- 5.BookTrust Bookfinder: The Perfect Match: A Football Fairy Tale.What it confirms: Chris Becker and Dan Taylor, Nosy Crow, 2026; interest age 3 to 7; the plot.
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