Fox Swift and the Golden Boot

Fox Swift #3

by David Lawrence, Cyril Rioli, Jo Gill (Illustrator)

Fox Swift and the Golden Boot is the third installment in the hilarious footy series by David Lawrence with Cyril Rioli and featuring illustrations by Jo Gill.

Fox and his ragtag team of Diggers are in for another action-packed year of fun, footy and friendship. This year Fox visits the Tiwi Islands with his best mate Lewis Rioli, his younger brother Chase is made captain of the Davinal Under 11’s, and midway through the season, Fox faces an unexpected test – he’s forced to team up with Mace after a slick Metro side challenges their local country league to a match. Can these longtime rivals put their differences aside long enough to triumph over the city slickers?

All of your favourite characters from the first two seasons return, and the Diggers have a new recruit – a speedy half back flanker called Aslam Khan.

Combining the sporting prowess of Cyril Rioli with the wonderfully wacky words of David Lawrence, witty illustrations by Jo Gill and a quirky footy dictionary, Fox Swift and The Golden Boot is the perfect book for any child with a passion for Aussie Rules, or just a passion for a good read.

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2015

About the author

David Lawrence is a comedy writer/performer who accidentally became a children’s author in 2008. He has written for numerous TV shows including Hamish & Andy, Comedy Inc., and Talkin’ About Your Generation, and has been a cast member of the ABC3 children’s sketch comedy show, You’re Skitting Me. His books, Anna Flowers and the three part Fox Swift series, have sporting themes and use humour to tackle issues such as bullying and racism in schools.

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[GuyF · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose Fox Swift and the Golden Boot because I have read the first one before and I really enjoyed it as it is about one of my interests: AFL football. I predict and am also hoping that it will be like the first one with a big climax which eventually gets solved in the end. What I really like about this is that you don’t know what will happen in the end as the writer makes some unusual and amusing endings. I am looking forward to seeing what Fox Swift and his friends encounter in this book. I’m also looking forward to see what part Cyril Rioli takes in the book.

I am half way through Fox Swift and although it is very eventful it is not exactly how I remembered the series. I thought that the book was in first person whereas it is actually in third person. I would prefer it in first person because then you get to hear the events seen in the protagonist’s eyes. Also, when a book’s in first person you get to understand the main character’s emotions better than you would with a narrator. There are also many upsides to this novel including it not being all about football and the way that the Winters are shown. Fox Swift (the person) encounters many adventures which are: helping his friend’s family keep their farm, helping his brother make his own Davinal diggers team, recruiting new players and even more. The Winters on the other hand is the family that owns the Davinal Dragons or Drongos which you come across halfway through the book. The Winters are constantly trying to get Fox and the Diggers in trouble as they are mostly jealous of what the diggers have achieved. The Winters add more drama to the book which adds to the entertainment. So far the book Fox Swift has had its ups and downs except it still is like the other one. Humorous and full of adventure.

(Includes spoilers) I have finished the book Fox Swift and the golden boot. Even though it had its ups and downs, it was still a great, interesting and humorous book. What was also good was that there wasn’t another expected ending of Fox and the Diggers winning by only 4 points to their rival team in the grand final. Instead they won by a comforting 19 goals to their rival, the Drongos. What I enjoyed was that there were many other people included in the book: Cyril Rioli, Mo’s family and many other diggers’ players. Cyril Rioli assisted the team by introducing new drills and ways to recover from unexpected injuries whereas Mo’s family played a completely different role. They were in debt and needed some money to pay out their loans until something very unexpected occurs. There is one downside to the book which is that the principal of Exford College, Mr Tatty invites Fox and his friends to a boarding school. Although it will be exciting to hear about his adventures at Exford College, there would be a loss of some characters. Such as: The Winters, Fox’s family, Greg Scott and many more people. Overall I found it an amazing book which included: humour, problems to be solved and most importantly, AFL.

[Dylan Male · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fox Swift is a star AFL football player and a popular Year 8 student living in Davinal. Davinal was once a booming goldmining town in the Northern Territory at the top end of Australia. Due to many years of drought the families that now live in Davinal now are mostly farmers struggling to pay their bills. Many farmers are selling, or have already sold up their farms, to a large company called Selim Properties.

Fox Swift and the Golden Boot, by David Lawrence with Cyril Rioli, is a book about the life of ‘Fox’ and his football mates. It’s written in third person and uses Australian football slang such as ‘point blank range’, ‘selling candy’ and ‘stoppages’ in bold writing throughout the book to keep the young football readers interested.

Fox lives with his Mum, Dad and younger brother Chase. The two brothers have a strong bond and often help-out together at a nearby struggling farm, owned by Mr and Mrs Officer. Fox gives his brother helpful tips about football, especially when Chase decides to form his own team instead of playing for the ‘Drongos’. The boys are also very close to their Dad, who often embarrasses the boys, like their first day of school, taking selfies with the assistant Principal and Fox’s teacher. Their Dad shows a lot of love and respect to his sons and is always watching them play football. He is different to Mace’s Dad, Mr Winter, last year’s coach of the ‘Dragons’, who was reported for secretly paying boys to come and play for the team. Mr Winter is a villain in the book and whose dishonest eventually catches up with him.

Fox is Captain of the local under 14’s team, the ‘Davinal Diggers’, and is popular amongst his team mates. He has nicknames for all his team; such as Burpinator, Lazer and Mini. Fox is a fair player and respects other great local footballers. One of his favourite players, ‘JT’, plays for his brother’s under 11’s team. JT only has one arm, but in Fox’s eyes, takes the best one-handed mark in the competition. Fox believes that ‘as long as he wants to play that’s all that matters’.

The ‘Davinal Diggers’ are not your typical AFL junior football team, with two girls, a boy from Taiwan and a Muslim boy called Aslam. The coach, Mr Scott, is respected by the team and he often emails his close friend, AFL football legend Cyril Rioli, for advice and tips to help improve the team’s skills and tactics.

Mr Scott takes on the challenge of coaching a combined Davinal team called the ‘Nuggets’ to play against the State Metro under 14’s from the city, coached by a self-obsessed old football team mate, Barry ‘Gigjam’ Magro. Fox was voted captain of the Nuggets, and although the visiting team look more skilled during their warm up drills, the Nuggets were too strong in the end and won by 12 goals.

The climax of the book is the Grand Final match between the Diggers and Drongo’s under 11’s and 14’s teams. The winner of this match is quite predictable, and I found this part of the book a little bit boring to read. The culprit behind the sabotage of the Officer’s farm was also fairly obvious.

Parts of this book were enjoyable and well written. The use of humour and drawings by Jo Gill would keep young readers interested. Over-all I rate this book 3 out 5 stars.

[Rob De · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fox's adventures this time see him visiting the Tiwi islands, having his local rep team beating the state metro side,winning his local grand final by 20 goals(in which he kicked 6)and finding the legendary golden boot gold nugget.
Throw in mateship, teamwork with footy drills and expert advice from Cyril Rioli and we have a book that will impress most young sports lovers.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because I can relate to Fox because he is a footy lover like me. I liked how the author used really descriptive words to help visualize what is happening in the story. I wonder if when this author makes more books Fox will grow up to being an AFL star. I would recommend this book to kids 9+ that love their footy.