The Keeper

1. The Keeper Written by Mal Peet

2. About Mal Peet • Mal Peet grew up in North Norfolk, and studied English and American Studies at the University of Warwick. • Later he moved to south west England and worked at a variety of jobs before turning full-time to writing and illustrating in the early 1990s. • With his wife, Elspeth Graham, he has written and illustrated many educational picture books for young children, and his cartoons have appeared in a number of magazines. He and Elspeth live in Exmouth, Devon. • Peet is the author of four YA novels for young adults: The Keeper (2003), Tamar (2005), The Penalty (2006), and Exposure (2009)

3. Synopsis Paul Faustino, a sports journalist for La Nación, has the task of interviewing El Gato, the greatest goalkeeper to have ever come out of South America. The interview follows the South American country’s success in the World Cup. Gatocomes from a very poor family who lives in a forest that is being logged. As a young teenager, Gato enjoys walking alone through the forest. There, he comes across a mysterious man known as the Keeper, who trains him to be an excellent goalkeeper. However, living hundreds of miles away from the nearest town, and with a mother who dreams of her son going to university, it seems unlikely that Gato will ever play football. In fact, Gato inevitably follows his father into working for the logging company.

4. Synopsis continued… • Gato proves his ability during a football match between the Loggers and the men who work in the Camp. He impresses his boss so much that the manager of Deportivo, San Juan, is invited to watch Gato play. Immediately, Gato is offered a contract. Gato is extremely successful at Deportivo, but each time he returns home he visits the Keeper in the forest and receives additional training. However, the Keeper becomes increasingly impatient, and it becomes clear that Gato has been chosen to achieve something more than footballing success. • After winning the World Cup, Gato returns to the forest to visit the Keeper. It transpires that the Keeper was a member of the national football team that crashed in the jungle in 1950. The team was the favorite to win the 1950 World Cup, in Rio de Janeiro, and after their mysterious crash they became known as the Lost Ones. When Gato presents the Keeper with the World Cup, the whole ghost squad from 1950 materializes from the forest. They then fade away, able to rest now that the World Cup has been brought home.

5. About The Keeper By Mal Peet “I wrote Keeper with the modest intention of inventing a new kind of ‘soccer story’ by ignoring all the ‘rules’ of the genre. I couldn’t think of any good reason why sports novels mightn’t travel into the realms of magic and mystery that other kinds of fiction visit. Or not deal with serious issues. Or not dare to be ‘literary’. Or be written strictly for the boys. So Keeper is about death and the supernatural, family relationships – particularly father-son relationships – and about self-discovery, ambition, rain forest conservation…and, yes, okay, football. It tells the story of a boy growing up in a remote village in South America where the only work is logging. Banished from the village soccer games on account of being useless, he starts to wander into the jungle. One day, impossibly, he discovers a secret soccer pitch and meets a mysterious being he comes to know as The Keeper. Through a long, very unorthodox and sometimes scary apprenticeship, The Keeper teaches the boy the secrets of his craft. And eventually the boy becomes El Gato (The Cat), the world’s greatest goalie.

6. Continued… The story is told in the first person by El Gato himself in the form of a night-long interview with the journalist Paul Faustino, two days after Gato has led the national side to victory in the World Cup. Although I didn’t know it at the time, Faustino would become the link connecting Keeper with my other two (so far) South American novels – The Penalty and Exposure. By the way, commentators have frequently declared that the Paul Faustino books are set in Brazil. They’re not. (For one thing, the local language is Spanish, not Portuguese.) Faustino’s country, my South American country, is an imaginary one. Keeper was first published in the UK by Walker Books in 2003 and in the US by Candlewick Press in 2005.”

7. What do you know about South America? • South America has the largest rain forest in the world with more than 2.5 million insect species and 1/5 of the world’s fresh water. What is the name of the forest? • The second longest river is located in South America. What is the name? • What natural resource (discovered in 1921) has made Venezuela one of the richest countries in South America? • Which country in South America is not only the largest, but also has the most people? • List the countries in South America.

8. Answers • Amazon Rain Forest • Amazon River • Oil • Brazil • Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands (British), Falkland Islands (British), and French Guiana (French)

9. Current Deforestation News • http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-24950487

10. Nike Brasilian Football Documentary • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa66lHvBNes

11. Class Questions • Advertising in sports • Why did Nike sponsor the documentary Ginga. • When viewing the documentary how many examples of product placement can you find? • What advertising techniques were used to engage you? • Why were they successful? • Why are some sports better financed than others? • Are there still major discrepancies between sponsorship of the genders? • What are the pros and cons of advertising and sport? • What about the morality of it in terms of money spent, especially in poorer countries?