While the Tokyo Olympics of 2021 can’t draw crowds in real life, there are plenty of ways to share the thrills of world class athletes showing off their best. Extend your family’s sports attention with just the right books for these competitions, too.
From Gecko Press, let’s start with Ole Könnecke’s picture book Sports, translated by Monika Smith. Illustrated with cheerful and colorful animals engaged in a variety of popular athletic possibilities, these dictionary-style explanations offer both fact and fun. Which track star do you think is most likely to bring home the gold medal?
The Olympic Games often are settings for new records of speed, distance, height, and other measures of physical agility and prowess. What would athletes have to achieve to compete with the speeds, sizes, and other capabilities of other animals? Records of the Animal World, by Oldřich Růžička and illustrated by Tomáš Pernický, published by Albatros Media, gives us some answers, clearly presented in comparison graphics as well as thumbnail written descriptions.
From Britannica Books, check out Andrew Pettie’s forthcoming Listified! to find all sorts of almanac-style record entries.
In the meantime, can you find your copy of What On Earth Books’ Sports Timeline Wallbook? This visual history goes back to the first Olympic Games in Ancient Greece and offers lots and lots of details across the 10 feet of chart.
If your child’s chosen sport involves a bicycle, Cicada Books has an essential title: The Young Cyclist’s Companion, by Peter Drinkell with illustrations by Thomas Slater, shows and tells all your child needs to know about bike care and safety.
Has all this talk about athletics made you a bit hungry? Thanks to Readers to Eaters, there’s the perfect sports-aware book for that, too! Feeding the Young Athlete, by Cynthia Lair with Scott Murdoch, Ph.D., RD, offers sound and engaging advice for tweens, teens, parents, and coaches.
Enjoy your screen time at the Tokyo Olympics—and share a good book with your young sports fan, too.