Created by an award-winning author-and-illustrator team, Olympics sets the stage with facts, articles, and essential background information across the complete range of Olympic summer competition. Every aspect of the summer games is covered, including their history, the bidding process, training and qualifying, and life in the Olympic Village. Coverage of the events themselves captures the exhilaration of competing at the pinnacle of world sports—from explosive sprints and the grace of gymnastics to the proving grounds of endurance, the marathon and triathlon, and everything in between.
In addition, special spreads celebrate the great summer Olympics, from Stockholm 1912 to the record-breaking games of Sydney 2000. Olympic achievements are highlighted at the back of the book, bringing to life the great rivalries and honoring those competitors who battled adversity to shine on the world's stage.
Action photos, digital illustrations, sidebars, a glossary, web resources, and more capture the excitement of the Olympic summer games through a review of the athletes, their training, the sports in which they compete, and the overall history of this worldwide event.Gr 4-8-A strong, ambitious, and useful title. Each subject is presented on a spread introduced by an enticing paragraph and accompanied by colorful, active photographs and diagrams. Subtopics are handled in lengthy paragraphs dynamically arranged across the pages. A historical introduction is followed by topical arrangements of the significance of the Olympics; track-and-field events; water events; precision, strength, and combat events; and cycling, equestrian, ball, and racket sports. They often include quick facts on past notable athletes, Olympic records, and stop-motion computer illustrations demonstrating how the sport is played. Each entry provides enough information to satisfy most casual readers, but many events are just mentioned in passing. Between these chapters there are features on past Games considered of particular significance such as those held in Berlin, Mexico City, and Sydney, but specific Olympiads are mostly underrepresented. The final section features facts, figures, and Olympic anecdotes. Overall, this is a worthwhile general addition to most collections as its usefulness will extend past this summer's games.-Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public Library, IL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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