Dive into the world of the Miami Dolphins with this captivating team profile! Covering the team’s incredible perfect season in 1972 to the successful seasons under quarterback Dan Marino, this book highlights the Dolphins’ history, accomplishments, and legendary players. Kids will enjoy learning about game day traditions and T.D., the team’s mascot.
Written at a 2nd-grade reading level, it’s ideal for students from elementary to middle school. The book includes a useful table of contents, a timeline of key events, a map showing the team’s location, a glossary, and an index. A “To Learn More” page also encourages students to continue exploring the Dolphins, both in the library and online. This is a must-read for any young Dolphins fan!
Dive into the world of the New Orleans Saints with this captivating team profile! Covering the team’s journey from their inception in 1966 to their Super Bowl 44 victory in 2010, this book highlights the Saints’ history, accomplishments, and legendary players. Kids will enjoy learning about game day traditions and meeting mascots Sir Saint and Gumbo.
Written at a 2nd-grade reading level, it’s ideal for students from elementary to middle school. The book includes a useful table of contents, a timeline of key events, a map showing the team’s location, a glossary, and an index. A “To Learn More” page also encourages students to continue exploring the Saints, both in the library and online. This is a must-read for any young Saints fan!
Explore the Cleveland Browns in this captivating team profile! This book delves into the team’s history, accomplishments, and legendary players. Learn about game day excitement with the “Browns Backers” and discover how many championships the Browns have won by taking a look at the trophy case.
Written at a 2nd-grade reading level, it’s ideal for students from elementary to middle school. The book includes a useful table of contents, a timeline of key events, a map showing the team’s location, a glossary, and an index. A “To Learn More” page also encourages students to continue exploring the Browns, both in the library and online. This is a must-read for any young Browns fan!
Discover the Denver Broncos in this captivating team profile! With vibrant photos and engaging text, the book highlights the team’s history, accomplishments, and legendary players like Jon Elway. Written at a 2nd-grade reading level, it’s perfect for students from elementary to middle school.
The book features a helpful table of contents, a timeline of key events, a map showing the team’s location, a glossary, and an index. A “To Learn More” page also encourages students to explore the Broncos further, both in the library and online. This is a must-read for any young Broncos fan!
Learn more about the Dallas Cowboys through this captivating team profile! Written at a 2nd grade reading level, this book is ideal for elementary to middle school students. With vibrant photos and engaging text, it highlights the team’s history, accomplishments, and legendary players, keeping readers thoroughly engaged.
The book also includes useful text features like a table of contents, a timeline of key events, a map of the team’s location, a glossary, and an index. A “To Learn More” page encourages students to continue exploring the Cowboys both in the library and online. This book is a must-read for any young Cowboys fan!
Learn more about the Monsters of the Midway through this captivating team profile of the Chicago Bears! Written at a 2nd grade reading level, this book is ideal for elementary to middle school students. With dynamic photos and engaging text, it highlights the team’s history, accomplishments, and legendary players, keeping readers thoroughly engaged.
The book also includes useful text features like a table of contents, a timeline of key events, a map of the team’s location, a glossary, and an index. A “To Learn More” page encourages students to continue exploring the Bears both in the library and online. This book is a must-read for any young Bears fan!
Discover the New York Giants through this captivating team profile! Written at a 2nd grade reading level, this book is ideal for elementary to middle school students. With fun photos and engaging text, it highlights the team’s history, accomplishments, and legendary players, keeping readers thoroughly engaged.
The book also includes useful text features like a table of contents, a timeline of key events, a map of the team’s location, a glossary, and an index. A “To Learn More” page encourages students to continue exploring the Giants both in the library and online. This book is a must-read for any young Giants fan!
Discover the Los Angeles Chargers through this captivating team profile! Written at a 2nd grade reading level, this book is ideal for elementary to middle school students. With vibrant photos and engaging text, it highlights the team’s history, accomplishments, and legendary players, keeping readers thoroughly engaged.
The book includes helpful features like a table of contents, a timeline of key events in the team’s history, a map of the team’s location, a glossary, and an index. A “To Learn More” page encourages students to further explore the Chargers, both in the library and online. This book is a must-read for any young Chargers fan!
For a reader who doesn’t typically go for sports-themed books, the book Golden Arm by Carl Deuker made for unexpectedly entertaining and sometimes suspenseful reading. If you do love baseball, it will just make this a more enjoyable read. In this coming-of-age story, Lazarus (Laz) is a student in an underserved Seattle high school negotiating many challenges at school, home, and on his baseball teams. He’s a gifted pitcher with a “golden arm” and a shy kid who has a stutter and a learning disability. Laz grew up in a trailer park without many of the privileges that the students in a wealthy district up north don’t even think twice about. Cell phones (not throwaway flip-phones), personal transportation (he rides the bus and walks long distances), a personal bedroom stocked with a computer, access to math tutoring, or having an actual pitching coach are things that he regards as luxuries and out of reach. His mom and half-brother Antonio are his family; his dad is out of the picture. Laz has the opportunity to contend for a state title on a team for a wealthy Seattle high school and his ultimate goal is to be a draft pick for the major leagues. It’s not a straightforward trajectory, though, and he has to deal with how to fit in at his new school, his alternate living situation, and how the cultural norms and expectations he experiences in his new setting mesh with his own developing personal ethics. The author does a nice job of using Laz’s point of view to portray the successes and challenges that are intrinsic to the growing-up process without over-analyzing or being preachy. It’s a high-interest story that’s a fairly quick read. Many young people will recognize and identify with Laz: being a poor kid with few resources trying to succeed in a culture defined by a rich, socially privileged class.
I do wish there was more development of the past relationship between Laz and his biological half brother Antonio because it is central to the plot. In the narrative they are real brothers who grew up together with no “half” about it, but Antonio’s character seems a bit hollow. Similarly, the character of Suja, Laz’s childhood friend (and romantic interest?) is underdeveloped and Suja seems more like support staff than a teenage girl Laz really likes. Even though the reader might wish for more thoroughly fleshed-out development of the important people in Laz’s life, overall the book is a satisfying read. Golden Arm should appeal to readers who enjoy a suspenseful plot that makes a few unexpected turns, and to those who tend towards the genres of sports, realistic fiction, and local color. However, it should appeal to a broader audience with a very elemental conundrum: How does a kid remain true to themselves when they have a tangible opportunity to “succeed” and live their dream, but to make this happen they must sacrifice the very relationships that helped make them who they are?
This nonfiction book gives a good overview of swimming, including four basic strokes. equipment and safety. labeled photos accompany the simple text, with bolded words that might be unfamiliar. Those words are then defined in the glossary at the end of the book. Typical nonfiction features (table of contents, index, resource list, text boxes, labels) are present. An additional feature, which makes this book stand out over others is the number of QR codes, which link to extra resources. Once accessed, there are activity pages to print, videos and many other extras that take this book a step above the rest. While it is a fine introduction to the sport of swimming for young readers, the extra features will engage students and the adults around them. Highly recommended.
Young basketball enthusiasts will devour this slim volume of records detailed in glossy photos and succinct prose. Both NBA and WNBA records are included, along with the former record-holders. While there are no long lists of the sport’s record-holders, readers will appreciate the information about the current top placer. Those that want more will use this book as a jumping off point for further research.
Typical nonfiction features, such as captions, table of contents, glossary, bold words and index are included. Fans wanting more information are advised to go to the publisher’s ‘Factsurfer’ website.
Soccer is gaining in popularity at a fast pace and this book will satisfy your young sports enthusiasts’ craving for information. Both male and female athletes and teams are highlighted, with glossy photos an short descriptions of their record-breaking feats.
Typical nonfiction features are included: index, glossary, table of contents, bold words and captions. Suggested websites for further exploration are included. This book is attractively laid out and will not be on your shelves very often!
Baseball has been around for a very long time. As a result, there are many records that have been achieved and broken over the years. This book, part of the Incredible Sports Records series, goes into many team and individual records. Readers will learn about the longest game on record (26 innings!) to pitcher Cy Young’s long-time win record set in 1911. Not only are current, record-holders described; their predecessor is listed as well.
Young sports enthusiasts can rejoice in a book chock full of information about baseball greats over the long history of the sport. Glossy pictures and short write-ups detailing important records in the baseball are a pleasing addition to a somewhat crowded field of sports trivia books. Recommended.
Pro Wrestling is a high/low book that describes the sport, gives some history and sprinkles in some fun facts. All of this information is presented in short paragraphs with highlighted words that might be unfamiliar and are defined in the glossary. Photos typically spread over two pages and text is attractively inserted within. Wrestlers are varying in ethnicity and gender. This book is part of the Arena Events six-book series.
Pro wrestling is a big deal, even among the younger crowd. Many students are avid fans and this book will be a favorite. Written as a high interest/lower level volume, it will certainly attract its target audience of 3rd-6th graders, as well as those above and below. Pro wrestling has been around for sixty years and it doesn’t appear to be diminishing in popularity. So, the pop culture aspect of this book is somewhat moot. It should be relevant for some years to come. Update your sports section with this one!
Football Records, part of Blastoff! discover. Incredible sports records series, is a quick “dip your toes into the stats” kind of book. Glossy action shots of various record holders with short paragraphs and extras in scattered text boxes will leave the casual reader satisfied and the sports fanatic ready to explore more (which will be simple, given that there are extra print and internet resources listed in the back of the book). Highlighted words are defined in the glossary and an index is a nice quick reference. This will be a good purchase if you are looking to update your sports collection.
This slim book succinctly describes many of the greatest Olympic records and athletes of all times. Exciting photographs punctuate the bits of information, which will be jut enough for those sports buffs that don’t want to wade through lots of information in a larger reference book. Many of the athletes and sports will be familiar (example: Michael Phelps and swimming). But, some will be new to middle grade readers (example: coxless pair rowers Hamish Bond and Erick Murray).
Typical nonfiction features are present: table of contents, glossary, index. And potentially unfamiliar words are bolded. Olympic Records is part of the Blastoff! Discovery: Incredible Sports Records series and is a nice addition to those collections that need a boost of new material. Additional selection
Current and past NBA Finals are described in spare text within full-color pictures of this 24 page high interest-lower reading level nonfiction book. The history of the NBA is briefly described along with exciting photos of some of its starts will engage even those reluctant readers.
Typical nonfiction features are included: table of contents, index, glossary and further exploration. Unfamiliar words are bolded and a two page spread of the bracket used will entice young readers to keep this book in hand. Additional purchase
Kwame makes a slam dunk with this Playbook. Fans of The Crossover and Booked will be lined up to read The Playbook. While this is not a work of fiction, there are many stories about Kwame’s life and the lives of other athletes told throughout the book. Every detail of the book is well thought out. The physical appearance of the book will engage readers – they will appreciate the textured pages, imagery and photos, and the color used throughout. Sports enthusiasts will appreciate the layout of the book as it is set up like a sports game complete with quarters, half time, and overtime. Kwame is engaging and authentic. Kids will know that the 52 rules presented throughout the book come from Kwame’s heart. A must purchase for middle school libraries.
On Guard, part of the Bounce (basketball) series, tells the story of a star point guard on her high school basketball team who is set to break the state record for shooting three-pointers. She’s being recruited by a prominent college basketball program, and is looking forward to a college scholarship. Her bright future is threatened when her sister is shot in a gang related drive by shooting, and her little brother appears headed in the same destructive direction as her sister.
How can Mercedes help her brother escape the crime of their old neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama? How will she and her family recover and move on after the death of her sister? Will she be able to salvage her ability to play basketball, break the state record, and sign her letter of intent to play college ball?
This novel will appeal to both girls and boys who are interested in basketball, social and family issues, and overcoming adversity.
This book is divided into three sections: essays about sports injuries, the controversies surrounding them and personal stories about these injuries. In the first section there is an essay about brain injuries and concussions. Included in this essay is discussion about the suicide of Chicago Bears defensive back Dave Duerson, who, in his forties began to suffer from headaches, blurred vision, memory loss and other symptoms so severe that he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest so that, according to his note, his brain could be preserved for research. The second section includes essays about whether or not the NFL should be held responsible for players’ concussions and why there is such an increase in the number of sports injuries suffered by children and how they might be prevented. The last section has two essays from those who have experience with these injuries. With sidebars, charts and photographs, the book is visually appealing. The book also includes a glossary, a chronology, a list of organizations to contact, and sources for further information. This volume could prove useful for Sports Medicine classes or as a source for debate information as well as providing useful information for anyone interested in the topic.
