King of the Bench: Kicking and Screaming

King of the Bench: Kicking and Screaming
by Steve Moore
Recommended Ages: 10+

Spiro T. Agnew Middle School student Steve loves most sports, but mainly sits on the bench at games. Although he does have some good eye-hand skills, he suffers from what he calls eye-foot dweebitis. Which is probably why, one day while watching a soccer game, he blurts out the fact that he hates soccer. This offends his best friend, Becky, so badly that in order to make it up to her, he goes out for the soccer team and, naturally, ends up on the bench. But then, an unlikely series of events puts him in charge of defending the goal at a big game, bringing out unexpected qualities in the hero kids.

It's a hilarious, heavily illustrated kids' book, featuring the activities bus driver from aitch-ee-double-hockey-sticks, an obnoxious sports dad, an always-cheerful Brazilian junior soccer star and an unfortunate encounter with a skunk. It's the kind of underdog-team, put-upon kids comedy with scratchy that should appeal to fans of Wimpy Kids.

Despite his books being widely available, I haven't been able to find out much about this author. I guess he used to draw a cartoon column called "In the Bleachers." He's not to be confused with this Steve Moore, a comic book writer who died in 2014, or this Steven Moore who writes fantasy novels, or this Stephen Moore who also writes fantasy novels; but who knows? Steve Moore might not even be the author's (or authors') real name. I'm just here to review the book, not solve the mysteries of the ages. What I do know is that this is the third "King of the Bench" title, blending chapter books with graphic novels. The other titles in the series are No Fear, Control Freak and Comeback Kid.