Tag Archive | swimming

Donor kids misheard becomes THE DOUGHNUT CLUB of brother & sister – wait, how many more half-siblings out there?! by Kristina Rahim (MG fiction book review)

Jul1
On book cover, title The Doughnut Club is written around a huge frosted doughnut in center. Above is is author's name Kristina Rahim. Below are 3 kids, a blonde girl with green eyes looking to the left with her arms crossed, a red-headed freckled green-eyed girl holding book "Do you have to be alike to be a family?" and pencil while looking straight ahead, and a darker skinned boy with brown hair and eyes looking at the redhead and waving his left hand.

Books or surfing?
Sketching or rock-climbing?
Her choices are clear!

Finally on their way to their annual shore vacation, Quinn wonders why she prefers quiet to the rest of her family’s go-go-go activity style.

She and Olly have always known they were donor-conceived – the red-headed 12 year old born by their Mama and her younger dark-haired brother by their Mom.

Never really interested in their biological dad, until Mom tells them a website shows they have 16 other donor siblings (sixteen!) but they’ll have to wait till they’re older to contact them.

Now it’s all that Quinn can think about – even after an accident sidelines her from all water activities (yay – no surfing!) and snobby rich Monika teases her (like every summer).

Can she get into that website and see more about their donor siblings?
Will she finally get to choose classes that she likes at the resort?
Why is Monika picking on her so much?

Quinn has always fainted at the sight of blood, so a crisis only she can respond to truly tests what she can do in an emergency!

Do you know folks who are donor conceived?
**kmm

Book info: The Doughnut Club / Kristina Rahim. Nosy Crow, 2025. [author site https://www.kristinarahim.com/] [publisher site https://nosycrow.us/product/the-doughnut-club/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher via Publisher Spotlight.

Bedtime reading, if you dare… NIGHT STORIES: FOLKTALES FROM LATIN AMERICA, by Liniers (Graphic Novel)

Jun11
Book cover of Night Stories: Folktales from Latin America, shows a brother and sister in their bunk bed flying across the night sky above roads, trees, and hills, with author name Liniers and introduction by David Bowles below them.

Danger on the river,
in the town,
on the pampas!

One night in their bunk beds, a brother and sister are telling each other scary stories from folktales they’ve heard.

There’s the one about the mermaid and the pink dolphin in the Amazon River – that’s Iara, Mother of the water.

And beware the Witch-Owl of the Mexico borderlands – when this bruja calls your name, you know that your death is near!

On the pampas grasslands of South America, the Evil Light threatens to steal travelers’ souls – is it the gates of Hell opening a crack?

“As you read these stories, you will get at thrill from them. You might feel scared. But I hope you will keep in mind all the layers of meaning they contain,” says writer David Bowles in the heavily researched introduction “Why We Tell Tales” (pg. 6).

More about each folktale is found in the notes at the end of this entertaining and chilling graphic novel. Available in Spanish as Cuentos de noche: Relatos de Latinoamérica.

What’s your favorite folktale from the Western Hemisphere?
**kmm

Book info: Night Stories: Folktales from Latin America / Liniers; introduction by David Bowles. Toon Graphic, 2024. [about the author/artist https://www.lambiek.net/artists/l/liniers.htm] [publisher site https://www.toon-books.com/store/p330/Night_Stories%3A_Folktales_from_Latin_America_by_Liniers.html ] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

Competing and playing: THE ORIGINS OF SPORTS, by Sekaninova, Velcovky, & Ilcik (kids nonfiction book review)

Jun4
Book cover of The Origins of Sports, surrounded by badminton shuttlecocks. golf clubs, ski poles, helmets, ice skates, racquets, mitts, and many different sport balls

Running and kicking,
throwing and batting,
many sports have long histories.

“This book is not about the first to the finish line. It is about who started things. It is about those who felt that playing was more important than winning.” (pg. 1)

In prehistory, running fast and throwing accurately meant survival. Celebrating a strong mind and a strong body, the Ancient Greeks insisted on education and began the Olympic Games.

Swimming has been a life skill and sport for over 900,000 years, we know from very ancient cave paintings! The first manuals on how to swim appeared in 1534.

Skiing developed from Stone Age snowshoes, with the first written records of skiing in China in 206 BCE. New technologies led to professional skiing, snowboarding, and snurfing.

On ice, people first glided with their feet on skates made of bone, then went faster with steel blades. Did you know that ballet dancer Jackson Haines invented figure skates in the 19th century?

With game elements from Egypt, Greece, Native peoples of Canada, France, and England, the first ice hockey matches were played by Canadian university students in the 1870s, who introduced a goaltender and set the rules.

Scotland is called the home of golf, but similar games with a club and ball were played in ancient Rome, China, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Ball-kicking games played in the Roman Empire, China, and Japan led to soccer, rugby, and football – each with their own rules about ball shape, scoring, time, field markings, and whose hand can touch the ball.

Keeping a feathered ball in the air has been a game for over 2000 years, whether using hands or feet or a paddle or a racket; badminton with feathery shuttlecock and tennis with rubber ball and heavier racket.

Basketball began in 1891 by James Naismith as a year-round indoor sport. Soon after, W.G. Morgan invented volleyball as an indoor winter sport with less running.

Baseball in its modern form was developed in the USA, echoing bat and ball games played in ancient Egypt and England from the 14th century.

Which sport is your favorite?
**kmm

Book info: The Origins of Sports / Stepanka Sekaninova & Tom Velcovsky; illustrated by Matej Ilcik; translated by Andrew Oakland. Albatros, 2023. [publisher site https://www.albatrosbooks.com/book/the-origins-of-sports/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.