WHAT ATHLETES ARE MADE OF (NONFICTION)
PICTURE BOOK
WHAT ATHLETES ARE MADE OF by Hanoch Piven (Atheneum)
Photographed collage illustrations a la Joan Steiner's LOOK-ALIKES
utlizes everyday objects in ingenious ways to create fantastic
portraits of twenty three sport superstars representing both genders
and a variety of sports and cultural/racial backgrounds. Babe Rith has
a hot dog for a mouth (he did eat eight of them at Coney Island one
afternoon), David Beckham has pink nail polish bottle for a nose (he
painted his nails to match his girlfriend's), and every page has such
a thoughtful visual detail to point out and discuss. Though the clever
pictures will be pored over again and again, the anecdotes are equally
strong: "Once when [Mohammed Ali] was on a plane, the flight attendant
told him to fasten his seat belt. 'Superman don't need no seat belt,'
he bragged. 'Well, Superman don't need to airplane,' she shot back.
Ali fastened his seat belt." Also inspiring is how Pele pressed the
pause button on the war between Biafra and Nigeria for two days just
by playing his game, and the advice given to children by Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar: "You should have dreams as students in addition to
having dreams as athletes." A "post game recap" at the end of the book
contains real photos, stats and career highlights for every
game-player named. A strong addition to any biography or sports
collection, it's also a fantastic read-aloud.I know, because I had the
pleasure of having a sixth grade boy read it to me cover-to-cover,
without my asking, because he thought it was that good. Do you need
another reason to get your hands on this one? Home run, goal,
touchdown! The crowd goes wild for this, the kind of book boys battle
to be next in line to read. (7 and up)
Also of interest:
By the same author, in the same artistic style (since this one will
leave you wanting more),
WHAT PRESIDENTS ARE MADE OF (Atheneum), just in time for Election Day!
And
FACES: 78 PORTRAITS FROM MADONNA TO THE POPE (Pomegranite), decidely
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