HOW DID A POOR BOY named Edson-who kicked rocks down roads and dribbled balls made from rags-go on to become Pelé, the greatest soccer player of all time? While other kids memorized letters, Edson memorized the scores of soccer matches. And when Edson finally played in a youth soccer tournament in the town of Bauru, Brazil, he focused on only one thing from the moment the whistle blew: the goal.

Here is the picture book biography of the boy who overcame tremendous odds to become the world champion soccer star Pelé.

LESA CLINE-RANSOME and JAMES E. RANSOME are the author and illustrator of Satchel Paige and Major Taylor, Champion Cyclist. James is also the illustrator of Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson, an ALA Notable Book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book; Creation, which won a Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration; and Let My People Go by Patricia C. McKissack, winner of an NAACP Image Award. They live in Poughkeepsie, New York.