This follow up story to the original Madlenka is nearly as heartwarming as the first: I enjoyed the story of young Madlenka journeying through her New York City neighborhood again, this time with a brand new soccer ball.

Curricular connections: In terms of using mentor texts to model writing, older readers (middle school) could compare this to the other Madlenka books in terms of writing a series of books with the same character for children. The information in the back of the book about the origins of the game of soccer also model how to incorporate some factual information with fiction. ( )

Madlenka has a new soccer ball and wants to play with whoever or whatever will play with her. Great use of imagination. A good book for story time. ( )