The Soccer Mom from Outer Space

Book excerpt: The night before Lena's first soccer game of the season, her father, Ruben Drinkwater, tells her the amazing story of his own first season playing soccer. His mom was like any ordinary parent watching the Atomic Pickles play. But soon, she began to act very differently-she started to look like a pickle, and she started to roar in a very loud voice when the team was scoring goals. In fact, she turned into an alien! Ruben spied on her at home, but she seemed to turn into an alien only during soccer games. Finally, he confronted her and asked her to act like all the other parents. That's when they discovered how much Mrs. Drinkwater's cheering meant to the team-especially to the parents, who took up where her cheerleading left off and renewed the whole team's spirit for the game.