The boyhood of Burglar Bill - Allan Ahlberg

Coronation Year, 1953, and in Oldbury a Coronation football competition is organized. It's Spencer's idea to get a team up - some of the players are good, and one of them is even a girl, but all of them are football crazy. The Malt Shovel Rovers team, despite various calamities, is ready and eager to beat off the opposition and win the cup in this funny and moving story of football and friendship, in a world when the streets were full of kids and empty of cars.

Not only for boys - for girls too - of 9+, there's a real pull of nostalgia for adults as well. And, of course, for all lovers of football, whether on the pitch or in the park.