Sharon Oliver (Children's Literature)
This book, part sports fiction, part fantasy and part fictional biography has an interesting, if specific, draw to it. It begins with the interview of “El Gato,” a soccer goalie who has recently won the World Cup. The interviewer, Paul Faustino, expects a run-of-the-mill interview with a world-class soccer player, but gets something much more. El Gato begins to tell Paul of his childhood in the jungles of South America, surprising the interviewer with his lack of interest in soccer as a young boy. The uncoordinated young boy is useless on his village’s soccer team and finds himself spending his time in the jungle instead of playing with the village boys. It is here, in a mysterious jungle clearing that he meets the Keeper, a ghost-like apparition who begins to train El Gato to be one of the world’s greatest soccer goalkeepers. This novel has mixed appeal for both fans of soccer and fans of the supernatural. At times some of the dialogue feels a bit formal or stiff, but for the most part, this is a wonderful story and an easy recommendation for some reluctant male readers. 2003, Candlewick Press, $15.99. Ages 10 to 15.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2006)
El Gato” is possibly the best soccer goalie the world has ever seen. In his retirement he has agreed to be interviewed by prizewinning sportswriter Paul Faustino. Holding the actual World Cup in his hands while he talks, El Gato begins with his childhood in a remote village in a South American jungle, where he was awkward and uncoordinated. He played soccer—badly—when not working in the nearby logging camp. But one day in the jungle, he meets the mystical Keeper, who insists El Gato belongs on a soccer field. The Keeper teaches El Gato the ins and outs of goaltending. El Gato becomes so good he is recruited away from the local team at the lumberyard and eventually sent to a prestigious academy, a vital stepping stone on the path to his illustrious career. Occasional comments from Faustino give voice to the doubts that such mystical intervention could possibly be real, but El Gato’s absolute conviction of the Keeper’s influence in his life adds a tantalizing thread of fantasy to an otherwise realistic narrative. Mal Peet’s fascinating novel also weaves a strong environmental message about the devastation caused by logging in developing countries into the action-packed sports story. CCBC Category: Fiction for Young Adults. 2005, Candlewick Press, 225 pages, $15.99. Ages 12-16.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 15))
This stirring adventure-a soccer story? a ghost story?-defies expectations. Soccer reporter Paul Faustino is thrilled to have an exclusive interview with brilliant goalkeeper El Gato, whose team just won the World Cup. El Gato offers the incredulous reporter an unbelievable tale. As a child, the goalie explains, he was terrible at sports in a soccer-mad town, so he retreated to the jungle his village found frightening but he found beautiful. In the jungle's darkest tangles, he encountered a mysterious goalkeeper who drilled him mercilessly for two years. When El Gato left his secret training to become a logger like his father (against his mother's wishes, who wanted her son to go to college and become a scientist), he discovered he'd become a world-class goalie. El Gato's mystical revelations are saturated with reverence for the vanishing jungle, and his too-perfect soccer ability is tempered by the confusion of a grown man who wants a life his adored parents would not have chosen. Both lyrical and gripping. 2005, Candlewick, 240p, $15.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 12 to 16. Starred Review. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, September 2005 (Vol. 39, No. 5))
This soccer novel is told in the form of an interview of El Gato (“the cat”), a legendary goalkeeper who has just won the World Cup for his team. El Gato tells how he grew up in a poor logging camp in the South American rain forest, where he says he was taught to play the game in a clearing in the jungle by a ghostly mentor he refers to only as the Keeper. At 15, El Gato must leave school to help support his family, and he reluctantly joins his father at the logging camp. There the men play soccer for recreation (and bet on the outcome), and El Gato’s incredible skills are quickly recognized. A scout appears, and his rise is meteoric, but he never forgets his family and his mentor. This haunting tale is full of sports action, but it also deals with El Gato’s anguished loyalty to his family and to the Keeper. An unusual and compelling sports story by a first-time novelist, this has already won awards in Britain. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: JS*--Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2003, Candlewick, 240p., $15.99. Ages 12 to 18.

Ann M.G. Gray (Library Media Connection, January 2006)
Author Mal Peet has written an enthralling sports book with a supernatural twist that will intrigue readers. The story revolves around a sports reporter's interview with El Gato who has just helped his soccer team win the coveted World Cup. Paul expects the interview with El Gato to last only a couple of hours, but sits in amazement as he listens to the story of how El Gato, a South American goalkeeper, learned to make save after save in the soccer goal. El Gato grew up in a poor logging town on the edge of the jungle in South America. He was never very good at soccer until, one day while exploring in the nearby jungle in South America, he happens upon a clearing with a soccer goal at one end. A ghostly man, the Keeper, works with him day after day teaching him the skills he'll need to become an outstanding goalkeeper. El Gato later becomes discovered during a Saturday afternoon soccer game in the logging camp where he has started to work with his father, and the rest is history. Interspersed throughout this ghost-sports story are facts about the rain forest and how fast it is being depleted. This is a gripping tale with a surprise twist at the end that will keep this book moving off the shelves. Recommended. 2005, Candlewick Press, 240pp., $15.99 hc. Ages 12 up.

Maggie Hommel (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 2005 (Vol. 59, No. 1))
When reporter Paul Faustino interviews the world’s best soccer goalkeeper, El Gato, he hears a story unlike anything he could imagine: a tale of a clumsy child in a small corner of South America, a mystical guru Keeper in the jungle, and an extraordinary rise to soccer stardom. The book (a British import) is framed as the actual interview between Faustino and El Gato, a format that helps keep the fantastical tale more grounded. Infused in the story are exciting and detailed descriptions of soccer games and the thoughts of the talented goalkeeper; scenes with the mythic Keeper allow the reader to see El Gato’s development, share in his journey, and learn about soccer as he does. Despite the South American locale, the regional details are generic; the focus, however, isn’t setting but soccer as a universal force, and its magical elements land it somewhere between Field of Dreams and Karate Kid, with the ghostly sports purgatory and redemption aspects of the former and wise-master elements of the latter. With soccer’s rising prominence and popularity in the U.S., readers scrambling for soccer stories will be begging for this captivating tale with plenty of play-by-play. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2005, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2005, Candlewick, 240p, $15.99. Grades 6-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2006)
Soccer sensation El Gato relates how a ghostly coach trained him to be the world's best goalie--in a pristine playing field smack dab in the middle of a South American jungle. Like Shoeless Joe (the basis for the movie Field of Dreams), this novel is an appealing and poignant blend of magical realism and sports fiction. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2005, Candlewick, 227pp, 15.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.

David Goodale (VOYA, December 2005 (Vol. 28, No. 5))
Peet's first teen novel tells the fictional life story of El Gato, the world's most famous soccer goalkeeper. The tale is sometimes told through an interview format as El Gato sits one-on-one with the top soccer journalist of South America. El Gato's tale is no ordinary one. As a young teenager from a small South American logging town, El Gato disappears into the rainforest each day to learn his trade from a mysterious apparition known as the Keeper. This supernatural training leads him to the ultimate success in soccer, winning the World Cup. El Gato then returns to the rainforest with the trophy and uses it to release the Keeper and his ghostly teammates by presenting them with the trophy that they should have won many years ago. This novel will be a decent addition to collections, but its appeal is limited. There are times when the story bogs down with detailed descriptions that might be too technical for the casual fan. Soccer fans and players will enjoy the book, but less-devoted fans or readers with no interest in soccer will find it dull. For fans, though, this book would be an excellent transition from the easier chapter books by authors such as Matt Christopher. Purchase only for libraries where sports books-especially those on soccer-are popular. VOYA CODES: 3Q 2P M J (Readable without serious defects; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2005 (orig. 2003), Candlewick, 240p., $15.99. Ages 11 to 15.