Nancy Clancy, Soccer Mania

by Jane O'Connor

  Wanda did. It was a hard, fast kick. The ball rocketed toward the net.

  The Silver Streaks’ goalie dove for it.

  “Did she catch it?” Nancy clutched Bree’s arm.

  “I can’t tell!”

  The goalie rolled over. Her hands were empty!

  The ball bounced against the back of the net as the final whistle blew.

  The game ended in a 3–3 tie!

  Bree and Nancy rushed onto the field with all the Goblins. Everybody was screaming, Nancy’s dad the loudest.

  “Whoooooo! We did it!” Her father’s face was turning bright red. Scarlet. He flung himself on the ground, kicking and screaming for joy. Then he sprang up and led the team in a wild cha-cha line. “Go, go, Goblins,” he chanted over and over. As he passed by Nancy’s mother he pulled her into the cha-cha line. JoJo too.

  “Okay, Doug,” Nancy’s mother said, laughing, when he finally stopped dancing. “Are you ready to calm down now?”

  “Claire, didn’t you see what just happened?”

  “Yes. Yes. I saw. A tie. It was great!”

  “‘A tie’? That’s all you can say?” Nancy’s dad planted his hands on his hips. “Oh, noooo, Mrs. Clancy. This was way more than an ordinary tie. You just witnessed a great moment in sports—” Nancy’s dad turned to the Goblins and gave two thumbs-up. “This was an against-the-odds, final-second, come-from-behind tie!” Then Nancy’s dad called to the parents, “Photo op!” while everybody on the team formed a pyramid.

  Clara was smallest, so she was on top.

  Nancy was in the bottom row next to Grace.

  “Hey, I meant to say thanks,” Grace said. “’Cause of you, I scored.”

  “Well, you’re welcome. But it was an accident. I was trying to get away from a bee.”

  “Still, it happened. So it counts.” Grace paused. She seemed to be pondering. “You’re not such a rotten player anymore. You’re almost average.”

  “You mean mediocre?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “Merci, Grace!” How many times before had Grace given Nancy a compliment? Like never.

  Then they both stopped talking and smiled for the cameras.

  Season over!

  BACK AD

  JANE O’CONNOR is truly a native New Yorker. She was born and raised on the glamorous Upper West Side and, after graduating from Smith College, returned to the metropolis (that’s fancy for city) to begin a career in publishing. Currently Jane works as an editor for Penguin Books for Young Readers.

  Jane has written more than sixty books for children, including the bestselling Fancy Nancy books, seven of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers.

  Jane is married to Jim O’Connor. They have two grown sons and a rambunctious canine (that’s fancy for naughty dog) named Arrow.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  ROBIN PREISS GLASSER, a former professional ballet dancer, has illustrated more than fifty children’s picture books, including the New York Times bestselling Fancy Nancy series, written by Jane O’Connor. Robin lives in San Juan Capistrano, California, with her husband, Bob. She has two grown children, Sasha and Ben, and a dog, Boo, who looks exactly like Nancy’s dog, Frenchy!

  CREDITS

  Cover art © 2015 by Robin Preiss Glasser

  Cover design by Jeanne L. Hogle

  COPYRIGHT

  NANCY CLANCY, SOCCER MANIA. Text copyright © 2015 by Jane O’Connor. Illustrations © 2015 by Robin Preiss Glasser. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  www.harpercollinschildrens.com

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  O’Connor, Jane.

  Soccer mania / by Jane O’Connor ; illustrations by Robin Preiss Glasser. — First edition.

  pages cm. — (Nancy Clancy ; book 6)

  Summary: As her third-grade class makes its selections for the “Graveyard of Boring Words” and learns about “superb synonyms,” slow-footed Nancy enthusiastically plays on the soccer team, with the goal of just being mediocre, or maybe even a little better than average.

  ISBN 978-0-06-226967-6 (hardback)

  EPub Edition © August 2015 ISBN 9780062269683

  [1. Soccer—Fiction. 2. Vocabulary—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction.] I. Preiss-Glasser, Robin, illustrator. II. Title.

  PZ7.O222Sns 2015 2015005622

  [Fic]—dc23 CIP

  AC

  * * *

  15 16 17 18 19 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  FIRST EDITION

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