A clear, fun, accessible, accurate, and encouraging guide for kids who love to bike.
A comprehensive guide geared to the young cyclist.
With its perky design and friendly tone, this manual provides readers with pretty much all the information they need to be confident and competent cyclists. The copious cartoon illustrations are mostly inclusive—cyclists of various ethnicities and skin color are depicted, though none are visibly disabled—while their lighthearted quality keeps the tone unintimidating. The four main chapters (“The Right Bike for You”; “Maintaining Your Bike”; “Cycling Technique”; and “Stepping It Up a Gear”) are laid out in easily understood pockets of information that include the anatomy of a bike, how to choose a bike for your needs, how to take care of it, how to ride safely and efficiently, and riding with a club. The information, with its practical delivery and fun, confident approach, obviously comes from direct experience. Kids will learn how to fix a flat, keep their bike in good shape, brake properly, and cycling safely on roadways, among many others, and the whole is sprinkled with quirky quotes from professional cyclists. The book is directed toward both boys and girls (and it does mention that competitive road cycling is male-centric, with the men’s teams getting more attention and money—a commendable aside). While the measurements in this U.K. import are usually given in metric and some spelling is British, this shouldn’t make any appreciable difference to American readers. The British hand signaling, however, differs from U.S. custom. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A clear, fun, accessible, accurate, and encouraging guide for kids who love to bike. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-14)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-908714-96-1
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Cicada Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
A sincere, genuine, and uplifting book that affirms the importance of being true to yourself.
Middle school drama hits hard in this coming-of-age graphic memoir.
Natural competitor Misty has faced off against the boys for years, always coming out on top, but now they’re moving on without her into the land of full-contact football. Never one to back away from a challenge, Misty resolves to join the team and convinces her best friend, Bree, to join her. While Misty pours herself into practicing, obviously uninterested Bree—who was motivated more by getting to be around boys than doing sports—drifts toward popular queen bee Ava, creating an uneasy dynamic. Feeling estranged from Bree, Misty, who typically doesn’t think much about her appearance, tries to navigate seventh grade—even experimenting with a more traditionally feminine gender expression—while also mastering her newfound talent for tackling and facing hostility from some boys on the team. Readers with uncommon interests will relate to the theme of being the odd one out. Social exclusion and cutting remarks can be traumatic, so it’s therapeutic to see Misty begin to embrace her differences instead of trying to fit in with frenemies who don’t value her. The illustrations are alive with color and rich emotional details, pairing perfectly with the heartfelt storytelling. The husband-and-wife duo’s combined efforts will appeal to fans of Raina Telgemeier and Shannon Hale. Main characters present as White; some background characters read as Black.
A sincere, genuine, and uplifting book that affirms the importance of being true to yourself. (Graphic memoir. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-306469-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A football fan’s treasure trove of magic seasons and moments.
Storied football teams are ranked and compared.
After an introduction that establishes the subjectivity of any sort of greatest rankings (“Because the only thing better than watching football is arguing about it afterward”) and defines the familiar-to-sports-fans acronym G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time), this book sets out to build cases for which teams (and players) were the best. An unsurprisingly NFL–heavy book, the first chapter covers 20 top NFL teams season by season; this makes up roughly the first half of the book. The selected seasons range from 1940 (the Bears) to 2016 (the Patriots), with some franchises appearing more than once. Alongside narrative highlights of the team’s season, each set of two spreads includes sidebars covering impressive team statistics and interesting anecdotes (such as the first player to dump Gatorade on a coach, strange sports superstitions, and a prank involving an alligator in a shower). The second chapter breaks from the team focus to select individual NFL players at each position, and the third chapter branches out to single-season college teams (limited to 10, which is sure to disappoint readers from unrepresented college football towns). Then the book returns to the NFL with blurbs about the best year for each franchise, takes a break to highlight a single team from a handful of other leagues (including Canadian and a women’s league), before returning to the NFL for a collection of top-10 lists by team stats.
A football fan’s treasure trove of magic seasons and moments. (index) (Nonfiction. 8-14)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68330-072-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Sports Illustrated Books
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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