April 1, 2017
Gr 2-5-Contemporary athletes representing the sports of soccer, skiing, football, swimming, basketball, and gymnastics are featured in this attractive series. In addition to career highlights, the texts also include information on the athletes' personal lives such as their hobbies and charitable interests. Upbeat and positive, if not overly inspiring, these volumes are more comprehensive than the usual fare for this age group. However, the texts, in some places, are already outdated; for example, Simone Biles references a planned 2016 tour for the U.S. Gymnastics team. VERDICT Solid additions to sports biography collections.
Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2018
Succinct, easy-to-read biographies of these sports stars include brief looks at each person's childhood before focusing on that individual's particular training and road to athletic success. Dramatic narration, direct quotes, color photographs, and sidebars round out the informative main texts; all-star statistics for that sport are appended. There are four other spring 2017 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind.
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