I am Lou Brown: Social outcast, precocious failure, 5’10” and still growing. I was on the fast track to the Olympic superstardom. Now, I’m training boys too cool to talk to me. In a sport I just made up. In a fish tank. My life has quickly become very weird.
African-American football player Chuck Ealey grew up in a segregated neighborhood of Portsmouth, Ohio. Against all odds, he became an incredible quarterback. But despite his unbeaten record in high school and university, he would never play professional football in the United States.
With every boy in a small Quebec town wearing the sweater of the Montreal Canadiens to play hockey, one child is horrified when, because of a mail order mix-up, he is forced to wear a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater.
An orphaned girl in a Ugandan refugee camp. A former child soldier in the Sudan. When survival is the priority, something as simple and normal as play seems to be a luxury that these children can do without. But Right to Play is changing that perception. Founding in 2000 by Norwegian Olympic medalist Johann Olav Koss, Right to Play begins at the grassroots community level, using sports and games to teach at-risk and underprivileged children around the world important values like self-esteem, empathy, and peace.
“Where there’s a ball . . . there will always be someone who wants to play soccer. Whether in Tanzania or Togo, Burma or Brazil, children love soccer. GOAL! celebrates the sport’s power to bridge cultural divides and bring together the many and diverse people of the world. Filled with fun facts and striking photos, this book is a poetic snapshot of soccer around the globe.
9-year-old Gabe (Gabriella) Murray lives and breathes hockey. She’s the youngest player on her new team, she has a nifty move that her teammates call “the Gabe,” and she shares a lucky number with her hero, Hayley Wickenheiser: number 22. But when her coach hands out the team jerseys, Gabe is stuck with number 9. Crushed, Gabe wants to give up hockey altogether. How can she play without her lucky number? Gabe’s grandmother soon sets her straight, though–from her own connection to the number 9 in her hockey-playing days to all the greats she cheered for who wore it, she soon convinces Gabe that this new number might not be so bad after all.
What goes on behind the scenes when athletes compete?Not everyone can be an athlete, but that doesn’t stop thousands of others from participating in world-class sporting events. When Patrick Reynolds realized that he couldn’t be a race car driver, he turned his love of cars into a successful career as a NASCAR mechanic.A passion for grass and baseball led Nicole Sherry to become the groundskeeper at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland.Author Kevin Sylvester tells the stories of 19 talented and dedicated behind-the-scenes stars of the sports world. In this new book, the glamour of the frontline athletes takes a backseat to the hardworking people whose jobs are critical to the success of their sport but often go unacknowledged.Readers will discover some very special people who have devoted their lives to supporting the sports they love, including the eagle-eyed baseball scout for the Chicago White Sox, the members of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and the doctor who treats injured players on the Canadian Olympic soccer team.With its real-life stories and lively photographs, Game Day will delight any young sports fan or wannabe athlete.
Join Puckster and his teammates for two exciting new hockey adventures in Puckster’s First Hockey Tournament and Puckster’s New Hockey Teammate.
Puckster is Hockey Canada’s lovable mascot and this polar bear knows everything to know about hockey. His books are perfect entertainment for young hockey fans.
Join Puckster and his teammates for two exciting new hockey adventures in Puckster’s First Hockey Tournament and Puckster’s New Hockey Teammate.
Puckster is Hockey Canada’s lovable mascot and this polar bear knows everything to know about hockey. His books are perfect entertainment for young hockey fans.
Jimmy lives in a small Caribbean town where there’s not a whole lot to do. Fortunately though, there is a boxing gym, and one day the owner, Don Apolinar, suggests that Jimmy start training. He also gives Jimmy a cardboard box full of books and newspaper clippings all about Muhammad Ali. Jimmy reads and re-reads as he never has before. He is swept with admiration for Ali who said, “I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.” He starts to feel good, realizing that he doesn’t need to have a lot of fancy stuff, that he’s a pretty good boxer himself, and that he can look forward to the future. But by the time Don Apolinar has to leave for the big city, Jimmy realizes that he can have a great life running the gym, creating a library, dancing and boxing . . . right where he is.Jairo Buitrago’s simple yet inspiring story is complemented by Rafael Yockteng’s funny, expressive illustrations, making this a book that will speak to many young readers.The Spanish edition, ¡Jimmy, el más grande!, was recently named one of “Los mejores libros del año” (Best Books of the Year) by Venezuela’s Banco del Libro.