Joyful, enthusiastic, well-versed, and uplifting.
Jökulsson and Torfason present 20 men with thighs like oak and feet like mambas.
Like Madonna, these men need only one name, like Maradona. Represented in short, zinging profiles are 20 of soccer’s (or football’s, if you prefer) greatest players. Told with as much flash as the players exhibit, the book is also energetic in its design, with crisp biographies that capture major moments, boxed items that illuminate some particular achievement or disaster, photos, and outline maps of the players’ native countries. Soccer is a game that rivets half the world, from Finland to Cameroon to Argentina, and its global reach is an important aspect of the book’s humanism. It doesn’t shy away from the weaknesses that can attend even the most gifted among us: George Best’s alcoholism, Zinedine Zidane’s temper, Diego Maradona’s drug problems. While all these players had extraordinary physical attributes of strength and endurance, what makes them shine is their elegance and brains. Such words as “cunning,” “dexterity,” and “vision” speak of what is admired in the game: “Beckenbauer was such an ingenious defense player and team leader that he is repeatedly noted as the greatest defender in history—without ever being rough or vicious.” The worldwide scope of the players represented is impressive, and it also gives a sense of world history, as in the entry on Mozambique’s Eusébio, who played for then–imperial overlord Portugal.
Joyful, enthusiastic, well-versed, and uplifting. (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7892-1295-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Abbeville Kids
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
In a helter-skelter scrapbook format, Cleare, a veteran mountaineer, profiles five of the world’s most renowned mountains—K2, the Eiger, the Matterhorn, Everest and Mount McKinley—and identifies some of the major historical expeditions to their summits. Top-to-bottom views of each peak are provided via single, double or (for Everest) wall-poster-sized triple foldouts. Along with those, dozens of smaller captioned photos, maps, images or realistic reconstructions depict noted climbers of the past, local wildlife, old- and new-style climbing gear, wind and weather patterns, climbers’ camps, glaciers and rugged landscapes. Likewise, each peak receives an introductory passage of dramatic prose (“Mount McKinley is a colossal, icy complex of ridges, spurs, buttresses, and hanging glaciers,” forming “a crucible of particularly evil weather”). This is accompanied by assemblages of captions and commentary in smaller type that detail its challenges and the often-unhappy history of climbers who faced them. The level of detail is specific enough to include views and comparisons of the actual routes up each mountain, and readers are expected to be clear on the difference between a cirque and a serac, or a “technical” and a “nontechnical” climb. Armchair climbers who can weather the random-feeling arrangement of pictures and the overall absence of narrative flow are in for thrills. (Informational browsing item. 11-13)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7534-6573-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Kingfisher
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
During the Great Depression, women's ice-hockey teams across Canada fought an uphill battle to scrape together enough money...
In the 1930s, the Canadian female ice-hockey team called the Rivulettes dominated the ice.
During the Great Depression, women's ice-hockey teams across Canada fought an uphill battle to scrape together enough money to play. From 1931-1940, the Preston Rivulettes, led by Hilda Ranscome, overwhelmed all other teams, capturing the national title in the four years that they could afford to travel far enough to compete for it. With the pressure of the war, and because they were no longer capturing fan enthusiasm since they always won, the Rivulettes disbanded in 1942. After the war, the culture had changed, and women’s ice hockey nearly disappeared until a recent rebirth. This effort describes in detail many of the key games the team played over that decade and the way that their remarkable record has been largely ignored by the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Though the book effectively captures the scrappy nature of the games (with numerous penalties in each for high sticking and fighting), disappointingly, it lacks any significant biographical information on team members. Only a couple are very briefly sketched. Readers will wonder what made this team so great; more information about the players might have provided key insights.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55277-721-3
Page Count: 136
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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