Although part of a bigger series, it isn't necessary to read all the other titles, though it may help to understand some of the minor parts of the plot. This story would be great for any sports fan - especially those who might suggest girls don't play football!

The next in the rebooted Roy of the Rovers series of YA novels and graphic novels, this one focuses on Rocky, who is Roy's sister but is also a fully fleshed out character of her own. Family, sport, and school were all explored nicely in this story and I especially thought the focus on anxiety, mental health, and talking to people (friends, family, or professionals) was great. Fun series!

This is a great sports graphic novels for middle grade and YA readers. I can easily see sports lovers diving into this book. It was a fun time!

Although used to reading about Roy of the Rovers through the years including the recent books in this series it makes a change to have a different perspective. This is still very much in the style of the previous books but more of a story in its own right and Rocky made for an interesting spin off.

A combination of words and illustrations that will be well-received by young readers. I enjoyed all that Roy of the Rovers: Rocky has to offer and would gladly share this book with young readers.

What's this – a Roy of the Rovers book with words in? Pictures, of course – but on the whole, entire pages of text? Surely something's wrong. But no, for football prose novels have always done rather well when done well enough, and it's only fitting Melchester Rovers hit the novel stands for the under-twelves audiences. The observant amongst you will realise there is just as many prose books like this as there are comic books in the rebooted series, and the fan amongst you will probably know from experience that the events here happen before the sixth and latest graphic novel. Which is kind of one of the problems.

Yes, it's not a huge part of this book until the final third, but we have characters hoping Roy Race and his team win the Cup Final at Wembley, but if like me you hit the comic pages first you know the result. We have someone announcing something the comic has already shown them doing. That is a bit of a peculiar aspect to things here, and an unfortunate one. Still, the flip of that is that just reading this in the right time will make it all good again, and there will be no such spoilers. But there are flaws still to be found here.

Principally, I don't see girls picking this series up at the sixth chance, just because it's about the mindset of Roy's sister, and how she is getting more gung-ho in her off- and on-pitch life, and working out what she wants from being an adult. Equally, however great Rocky may have been as a background character before now, I don't see how a whole book with her front and centre will appeal to the lads who have come here before. They know, I know, we all know, that the female game is not half as talented or interesting as the male, and however good the writing is here the action scenes don't describe something we can all universally connect with.

If there were to be a Roy-linked series for the lasses, with Rocky front and centre, then our author here Tom Palmer would probably be the one I'd choose for it. He can do the character stuff just as well as the game description. But with this being my first visit to this series I don't see this as fitting in as well as it might. It's fine that the books are all referring to the one set of events, and that the novels come at the games and happenings from a very different angle – perhaps they've all managed to do that – but to give such a feminine slant to a Roy of the Rovers book felt, not exactly jumping the shark, but at least leaping a few minnows. To repeat, if this book's audience has been trained to see the whole saga of the club through a different side character every novel, then fine. If not, then this could well be a most aptly-titled entrant, however beautifully it resolves. Three and a half stars.

I loved this book, I am not really a fan of football but I enjoyed this a lot, when you read this you can almost feel like you are in a football match, its a book I would largely recommend to children from 9 to 13 years, it involves a positive role model and I think this boom is very descriptive and well made