"Changing the Game: Fantastic Female Footballers" with Casey Stoney, illustrated by Emily Stead(Studio Press)

It's probably fair to start off this review by stating that we are completely clueless when it comes to football. Yet here is a book that, through truly brilliant and effervescent enthusiasm, manages to put across the brilliant skills, dynamism and passion of women's football.

"Changing the Game" with Casey Stoney, a former super-skilled pro footballer and now football manager herself, and illustrated by Emily Stead, begins with a historical look at the women's game and groundbreaking figures such as Lily Parr, who defied the government ban on women's football, to contemporary record-breakers such as Marta, and rising stars coming up through the ranks to take the game to new heights.

After the profile of women's football was raised stratospherically by the Women's World Cup last year, many are beginning to realise that the women's game may (entirely unfairly) not be dominated by money and huge player deals, but is definitely dominated by a passion for the game, and also a fantastic and inspirational determination to prove that the women's game is actually better / more fun to watch than the men's game.

With beautiful illustrations, inspirational stories, player skills and statistics, and Casey Stoney's motivational voice throughout, this is a must for girls and women who are not only interested in football, but are interested in any sport.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A fantastic and authoritative look at women's football, and the global rise of its superstars gaining in reputation and recognition year on year. 

"Changing the Game" with Casey Stoney and Emily Stead is out now, published by Studio Press (kindly supplied for review).