Archive for Shaken

A Soccer Book for Soccer Season!

September 15, 2026 / / 2 comments
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It’s soccer season — Shaken is a book
about a 7th grade soccer player
who suffers from a serious concussion.
It  throws her life, and sense of identity,
up in the air.
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Fun, right?
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Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature named it one of the Best Children’s Books for 2025 (of books published in 2024).
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It was not a widely reviewed book, which has become a serious problem for me, and others, and for certain types of literature in general. It’s a failure of the industry overall, for a variety of reasons. I don’t think a lot of folks have read SHAKEN. Oh, well. Maybe it’s just not that kind of book. Maybe it’s simply very hard for quiet books to cut through an increasingly cluttered marketplace.
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Here’s the Kirkus review:
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>> Life changes quickly for a middle schooler after an accident forces her to slow down and reevaluate who she is.
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Thirteen-year-old Kristy Barrett has always attracted attention on the soccer field: As a 4-year-old, people saw her playing and just knew there was something different about her, from her focus to her speed. She was special. This phrase has been repeated her whole life. Now, as a seventh grader, Kristy is starting on the varsity girls’ soccer team, dominating players who are several years older than she. Soccer isn’t just her passion, it’s her identity, the thing that people notice her for—and she loves it. But after she’s kicked in the head while diving for the ball, she suffers a traumatic concussion. Suddenly, Kristy is a different person—and no one seems to understand her or what she needs or even how to talk to her now that she’s not that special soccer player. Preller’s careful pacing matches the fuzziness and slow healing of Kristy’s brain, introducing readers to the realities of the pain, loss, and feelings of isolation that dedicated athletes often experience when they can no longer play. The somber tone of the story is lightened by the presence of two minor characters who bring levity and humor. Strong themes of healing (both physical and emotional), family, and friendship abound. Main characters cued white.
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An introspective and realistic coming-of-age story about rediscovering oneself. (Fiction. Ages 9-13.) <<
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Pub Day: SHAKEN Now in Paperback (Cheap!)

March 17, 2026 / / 2 comments

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Thank you to my editor, Liz Szabla, and publisher, Jean Feiwel, and everyone at Macmillan who helped make this book possible. It’s nice to see it with this truly great cover, now in paperback. 

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This book was named to Bank Street’s List of “Best Children’s Books for 2025.”

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A number of people generously helped me during the research for this book: Dr. Todd P. Giombetti; Jessica Van Wormer, licensed clinical social worker, certified school social worker; Christoffel Janse Van Rensburg, licensed clinical social worker; Piera McGaughan, girls junior varsity soccer coach, Bethlehem High School, New York; Tracy Gilbert, board certified art therapist, licensed mental health counselor; Maria Lupo, doctor of medical and health humanities, board certified art psychotherapist. 
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And for personal insights and shared experiences, for your time and thoughtfulness and generosity of spirit: Jennifer Healey, Olivia Healey, Mark Lane, Amelia Shaw, Erin LaDue, and Erin Svare. 
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Special shout out to these books and authors: Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour, PhD; Healing Days: A Guide for Kids Who Have Experienced Trauma by Susan Farber Straus, illustrated by Maria Bogade; and The Art Therapy Sourcebook by Cathy A. Malchiodi. 
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FAN MAIL WEDNESDAY #347: Letter from a “Huge Soccer Girl”

March 6, 2026 / / No comments

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From last night’s email: 

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SHAKEN will be available in paperback, featuring this new cover, on March 17th.

i just read your book shaken and i am a huge soccer girl and i love reading this book i love how she had a hard thing in her life and kept going on what she loved and i love how much she tried

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thank you its hard i had a concussion too it was hard so i loved how i could relate to this book 

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T____, 6th grade
pls answer back if you can

 

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I replied . . .

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T, 
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I’m very glad to read your kind note. While I hoped to write a book that was more than “just” a soccer story, I did very much want the approval of “huge soccer girls” like you. 
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My daughter Maggie played soccer until knee surgeries forced her to quit (three ACL surgeries and done). One unexpected thing she told me was about the first few minutes of practice, how warm and friendly they were, everybody touching base and connecting before the work begins. I tried to capture that small moment in the book. That feeling of being a team. 
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Another moment in the story was inspired by an actual USWNT  soccer star, Claire Hutton, who attended our local high school in Bethlehem, NY. Everyone who followed local sports knew about Claire from a young age. I only met her once, she may have been 15-16 at the time, when I was out walking my dog Echo on a summer day by the high school. Claire was out on the football field, alone, practicing with an assortment of orange cones. Running sprints, ball drills, and so on. I stopped and we chatted amiably for a few minutes. But that scene — a determined athlete, all alone, driven by some inner flame — was all I needed for Chapter 1 of my book. I wanted my character, Kristy Barrett, to have a little bit of the fire that burned inside Claire.
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How do you not root for a kid — now a young woman — like this?

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I’m sorry but not surprised to hear that you experienced a concussion. Hopefully your recovery went well and you can avoid another incident. The health of your brain is everything. And yet if you are playing the game, and competing, it’s impossible to go halfway. It’s hard to be careful when you are fighting for the ball. 
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I wish you luck. My best,
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James Preller
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Category: Fan Mail, Shaken / Tags: , , , , ,

BRIEF EXCERPT from SHAKEN: Establishing Kristy, the Soccer Player

March 4, 2026 / / No comments

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My most recent novel, Shaken, ages 10-14, will be out in paperback on March 17th. That’s less than two weeks from now.

In the book, an awesomely talented 7th grade soccer player, Kristy Barrett, experiences a serious concussion.

I more or less pull the rug out from under her. That’s what writers do. We make awful things happen to perfectly decent characters. In the rest of the book we find out what Kristy’s made of. In the first few pages, I needed to quickly establish that, for Kristy, soccer was everything. Her social currency, her primary source of self-esteem, friendship, and identity. 

If “Soccer is my life!” what happens when that hat blows away?

But before the “inciting event” of Kristy’s concussion — which is the engine of our story — I needed to establish the current situation. 

Here’s a few paragraphs from pages 3-4, where we learn something about this young athlete: 

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By the time she played her first organized practice at U4, anyone could see that Kristy Barrett was a special player. She was simply quicker and more focused than any other four-year-old on the field. Of course, half of them were clinging to their parents’ legs, or slurping on oranges, or plucking dandelions while Kristy raged up and down the grass like a creature possessed. Amazingly, that dynamic continued on through rec ball and travel, even when they let her play on the boys’ team. In seventh grade, Kristy was starting for the varsity high school team. She was special. That was the word, over and over: a special kid. 

But wasn’t everybody? 

Kristy didn’t much care what people said. She loved to play. That was all, the whole shebang. But after a video of one of her goals went viral — and was included on ESPN’s “Amazing Plays” Sunday feature, along with a thirty-five second interview — everyone, absolutely everyone, knew. Not long after, a coach from the USA Development Program called, saying, “It wouldn’t surprise me if one day Kristy represents the United States in international play.”

Maybe even a future Olympian. 

Altogether not bad for someone who hadn’t, at that time, turned thirteen. But that’s how it works at the highest levels of sports. When you know, you know. 

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THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

 

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Category: Shaken, the writing process / Tags: , , , , , ,

Check Out the New Cover: SHAKEN is Coming in Paperback (Cheap!) on 3/17/26

January 28, 2026 / / One comment

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I’m happy to share that Shaken (ages 10-14) has been named one of the Best Children’s Books for 2025 (of books published in 2024) by the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature!

And now there’s a new cover — so much better, more appealing, and accurate than the original cover — with a low, low paperback price. 

 

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Category: Shaken / Tags: , , , ,
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