Gracie

Gracie is a tie-in novel for a summer family film, and it is also a young adult book. Set in South Orange, New Jersey, in 1978, it follows sixteen-year-old Gracie Bowen, who lives in a middle-class household where nearly everything revolves around soccer. Her older brother, the star of the high school varsity team and the person she is closest to, dies in a drunk-driving crash, and she is left grieving for the whole family.

To fill the gap his death leaves on the team, Gracie asks the local school board for permission to play in the boys' soccer league. Her mother, her father (a former soccer star), her teammates, and school officials all struggle to understand what she is attempting. Nearly everyone tells her that soccer belongs to boys alone and that her goal is a waste of time. Gracie refuses to give up, draws on strength she did not know she had, and works to change other people's views of what she can do, along with her own.

The story is based on real events in the lives of the Shue family. Andrew Shue, who produced the film and co-stars in it, and his sister, Academy Award-nominated actress Elisabeth Shue, are both part of that history. The film marks the dramatic feature debut of Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, known for An Inconvenient Truth. In the film, Carly Schroeder of Lizzie McGuire plays Gracie, and Elisabeth Shue and Dermot Mulroney play her parents.

The book includes an eight-page color photo section and a question-and-answer conversation with Andrew and Elisabeth Shue about the true story behind the film.