Tag Archives: swimming

Sakamoto’s Swim Club: How a teacher led an unlikely team to vitory by Julie Abery

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Written in verse, this non-fiction book took me by surprise. With a few short stanzas Julie Abery has you smiling along with Coach Sakamoto’s efforts to help some of Hawaii’s young swimmers grow stronger. The poetic style of the book will make it accessible to many readers.

You find out in the Author’s Note that Coach (as he was known to his students) was not a strong swimmer himself, but was a great scientist and researched swim strokes to help guide his team. They started by swimming upstream in ditches and then a pool, soon all the swimmers had a common dream of going to the Olympics.

Sakamoto’s Swim Club is illustrated by Chris Sasaki, who easily brought to life the lush countryside of Hawaii. Some of my favorite illustrations are of the plans along the ditch the swimmers swim in and the views of the swimmers both above the water and below.

If you are looking to build add Pacific Islander books or add books with themes of courage and perseverance, this inspirational story is a must have.

Cover of the Sakamoto's Swim Club by Julie Abery

Swimming

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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.