BOOKS
Author Interview Priscilla Mante
Priscilla Mante kicks off a new series about a girls’ football team with more than one goal in mind...
Paula Akpan @paulaakpan E
ntering a stadium among a sea of equally boisterous and kited-out fans, kicking around a weather-worn ball in the park, impressing friends with yet another
newly mastered trick—these litle nuances of what has come to be widely known as The Beautiful Game feel like almost a lifetime ago. However, in the midst of all our foot- ball wistfulness—and, very conveniently, just before the Men’s and Women’s UEFA European Championships— London–based Scot Priscilla Mante is breathing new life onto the pitch with her début YA novel, The Dream Team: Jaz Santos vs The World. Following the escapades of budding footballer Jasmina
Santos–Campbell, Jaz Santos vs The World tells the story of one girl who is determined to create her own girls’ football team. It is made up of a group of rather unlikely friends, and has two goals in mind: to prove that girls can, and should, be taken seriously in football, but also, to win Jasmina’s mum back—she recently leſt the family home. A refreshing and heartwarming read, it’s a story that Mante has been itching to share for a while. “When I was about 10, I used to read so many books and I promised myself I would give kids that same joy I had,” shares the Glasgow native over an early morning Zoom call. “Football was something I loved, and it’s all about writing what you know and are passionate about.” Having adored the sport since she was young, Mante decided that football would be an excellent vehicle for sensitively exploring trickier topics, specifically fractured family dynamics. Her début also doubles as a love-leter to her younger self, and others like her, who never came across these kinds of books despite hunting them out. “I used to read The Baby–Siters Club and various things, but I don’t remember reading any books that were football books,” she shares. “I didn’t even read Bend It Like Beckham until last year—and I’d already writen the book by then!” Taking inspiration from children she met while liaising with care services across seven years, Mante saw how captivated they were by books by the likes of Jacqueline Wilson. “I started to read some of them and I decided that
38 9th April 2021
Girls’ football and women’s football don’t get the attention they should do... It was really important for me to challenge the status quo
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