My Lists
Featured Lists
REVIEWS
School Library Journal
Reviewed on May 1, 2021 | Elementary
K-Gr 3—This short, brightly illustrated picture book tells the story of Japanese Hawaiian swim coach Soichi Sakamoto and his swim club's journey to the 1948 London Olympics. After a brief preface, the story opens with children swimming in the irrigation ditches of the sugar plantations in Maui, and Sakamoto offering to coach them, despite being a poor swimmer himself. In a series of iambic quatrains on each page, Abery tells the story sparely with a consistent rhyme that makes it sound and feel like a gentle bedti...Log In or Sign Up to Read More