Meet the author

Mitch Johnson.

Writer · United Kingdom

Mitch Johnson: the Branford Boase-winning author of Kick, whose gripping, big-hearted football stories quietly open children's eyes to global injustice without ever preaching.

Mitch Johnson is a British children's author whose fiction turns page-turning adventure into a way of seeing the wider world. His award-winning debut Kick follows Budi, a boy in a Jakarta sweatshop who dreams of football glory while stitching the boots the rest of the world plays in, until one unlucky kick lands him in debt to the city's most dangerous man. Endorsed by Amnesty International for its portrayal of children's rights, it opens young eyes to global injustice without ever preaching. Its standalone companion Strike follows a Liverpool boy chasing a Premier League academy place until a note hidden in new boots pulls him into the fight over the workers who made them. Fast, tense and humane, Johnson's books are superb for confident 9-13 readers and a rich stimulus for classroom discussion about fairness.