Bend It Like Beckham [Paperback]

Narinder Dhami (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 2003

A very personal story about one girl's willpower to follow her dream.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Narinder Dhami is the author of Starring Alice Mackenzie, published by Harpercollins and second prizewinner in the TSB Birmingham Children's Book Award 1996. She is also a contributor to several bestselling series, The Sleepover Club (Collins), Animal Ark Pets (Hodder) and Animal Crackers (Transworld). She was a primary teacher until 1990, when she began writing full time. She lives with her husband in Cambridge. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 167 pages
• Publisher: Welcome Rain Publishers (November 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566499518
• ISBN-13: 978-1566499514
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #905,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clean and serene, February 11, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Bend It Like Beckham (Bite) (Paperback)

A Review
The story is about an Indian girl whose name is Jesminder. She is nearly 16 years old and she loves playing football. She fancies her idol David Beckham because nobody can cross or bend a ball like him. She also falls in love with her coach- Joe. But because of her religion and the beliefs of her family she isn't allowed to play. Her mother tells her not to show her bare legs in short football trousers like her friend Jules does. Her parents think that football isn't good for the behaviour of a real Indian woman. But for Indian women it is necessary to learn how to cook real aloo gobi and how to make round chapattis. The older Indians think that something like that is more important than having fun with sports.
After all the story is about untypical teenager problems, another religion, football and the hard way to tell the truth.

We both think that the book is well written and easy to understand. The vocabulary is explained on the bottom of every page that is why you don't have to learn anything for understanding the book without problems. We think that the story is interesting and good to read for boys and girls. A nice theme for boys is the football and many girls are interested in the small love-story of Jesminder, Jules and their coach, Joe.
If you want to learn something about the culture and the traditions of Indians the book will please you.

Benjamin, 16 & Sandra, 15 Germany

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cultural problems, February 11, 2004

By 

Daniel und Svenja (Sylt, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bend It Like Beckham (Bite) (Paperback)

This book is about an Indian girl(Jess) who likes to play football. One day an English girl sees her playing and asks her to play for a real girls side. But Jess must fight against the problems between the two different cultures, because her parents won't let her play football.
We liked the book, because the feelings are very well impressed with words. The discussions about the problems between two different cultures are very interesting and are good to understand. Because we were interested in this book, we liked to read it and understood everything well and when we had problems, we looked at the vocabulary aids at the bottom of every page. The football scenes are well described in the book, but they aren't shown very well in the film. But the best thing of the film is the music, which is suitable to every scenes. It doesn't matter if you read the book or watch the film at first. We think it is enough that you read the book OR watch the film, because it both have the same content.
We think, it could be a real story, because the problems of the teens are like our problems.

3.0 out of 5 stars UH...WHAT??, November 30, 2010

By 

Ash4h20polo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bend It Like Beckham (Paperback)

Ok so im a little confused, I was just about to buy the book until I read the reviews. The book was written as Jesminder and her friend were suppost to fall in love. The reason why the director changed it in the movie was just to not piss off the indian community. So is this based on the movie or is the actual book? because in the actual book it is about a lesbian teen