Footballer Marcus Rashford’s debut children’s book will be given to 50,000 children this summer as part of an initiative by his book club.
The Marcus Rashford Book Club, which is run in partnership with Macmillan Children’s Books, KPMG and The National Literacy Trust, will distribute the book to primary school children in the most economically deprived areas of the UK.
Rashford’s book, The Breakfast Club Adventures: The Beast Beyond the Fence, is co-authored by Alex Falase-Koya and illustrated by Marta Kissi.
Rashford said the book club was designed to “get the right books in the hands of children who have very limited access to them” and offer “an escape from environments that can be quite challenging and to find the joy in reading”.
He described books as “a great source of inspiration and motivation, and much needed for children who struggle to see beyond what is on their doorstep”.
Falase-Koya said that books were always “a refuge to me and a place where my imagination could be ignited” when he was growing up, and he hoped that The Breakfast Club Adventures would catch “the imagination of all the children”.
The Breakfast Club Adventures is about 12-year-old Marcus, who gets a mysterious note inviting him to join the Breakfast Club Investigators after he kicks his favourite football over the school fence, believing it to be lost forever. But Marcus is soon pulled into an exciting adventure with new friends Stacey, Lise and Asim to solve the mystery of what lies beyond the fence, and get his football back.
The book is inspired by Rashford’s own adventures growing up, and is aimed at eight to 12-year-olds.
The Marcus Rashford Book Club aims to encourage and nurture a love of reading in children and get free books to those who need them the most. So far it has delivered more than 100,000 free books. The previous two book club choices were A Dinosaur Ate My Sister by Pooja Puri, illustrated by Allen Fatimaharan, and Silas and the Marvellous Misfits, written and illustrated by Tom Percival.
Another instalment of the book club will run in autumn 2022, when a further 25,000 copies of a yet-to-be-announced title will be given out.