As a real-life portrait of the politics of youth sports, Maya Castro's book delivers an engrossing examination of the hierarchies at the heart of a kid's game. The subtitle of Castro's debut book is an honest summation of her work, a thoroughly detailed account of her experiences in the small-minded, parochial world of youth sports- in her case, soccer. Maya discovers soccer at her small, Southern California middle school and immediately shows a knack for the game. She transfers to the larger Green Hills High School to participate in its elite soccer program, despite the warnings of her friends and coaches. "You're leaving a family that loves you and appreciates you for a team that'll treat you like another number," says one. "They won't love you like we do." It turns out they were right: The soccer program at Green Hills proves to be a well-oiled political machine, benefiting the affluent/overbearing parents and their offspring at the expense of the hard working athletes. Effort and hard work, once the pillars of youth sports, Castro soon learns are now, according to the GH program, signs of arrogance and even disrespect. In choosing to ignore the "GH way of life," things take a turn for the worst when a group of upperclassmen perceive the up-and-coming rookie's work ethic to be a threat to their GH spoils system. Before long, a rivalry forms between Castro and these players, turning teammates into enemies. In such a situation, a leader is needed to bridge the divide. Unfortunately, no such figure existed within the GH soccer program. When the Varsity head coach encourages Castro to "get used to" being disrespected by her own teammates, Maya quickly realizes that she's been left to fend for herself. She has one of two options: stand tall, which would mean staying and fighting the upperclassmen, figuratively and eventually literally, for a spot on the GH team, or cower in fear by quitting the soccer program altogether. With her decision to stand tall, all hell breaks loose. And just as she was starting to get the hang of fighting off the bullies her own age, a group of complacent school officials, helicopter parents, and enabling coaches enters the ring to help the upperclassmen take down the high school freshman. Similar to the upperclassmen, the adults were about to learn Maya Castro doesn't scare easy. At the same time, Maya Castro was about to learn the harsh reality of fighting in a game that's fixed. Now a college graduate, Castro shares her chaotic soccer experience, and everything it taught her, in the hopes of encouraging parents, coaches, and even school officials to re-evaluate their actions and intentions (to ensure the two align). When 70% of kids are giving up youth sports by age 13 and the most talked about aspect of a kid's game are the "crazy and/or complacent adults" it's time to acknowledge our approach is very off. Castro's solution: The adults need to put more of an emphasis on the learning aspect of the game. This means, mentoring kids and teaching them the correlation between what it takes to succeed as an athlete and what it takes to succeed as a person. Similar to grown-ups, kids want/expect a return on their investment of time and effort they've put into becoming the athlete their parent/coach will be proud of. "We can't all become pro-athletes or even college level athletes. We can, however, all learn something of value from our experiences that will benefit us in other aspects of our lives. If kids understand that, they'll never walk away from their sports feeling as though they've wasted their time. That's what should matter to the adults, not whether or not their kid or player became a pro-athlete." Castro says. Read The Bubble and learn, from the perspective of one of the athletes, what you can do to enhance the fun, safety, and, above all, meaning of youth sports.