Olympics inspired books
Date Added: 29/07/2021
There are books on most Olympic sports in Central Bedfordshire Libraries, including the new Olympic sports of surfing, skateboarding and karate.
Search for the sport of your choice in the library catalogue and reserve titles with your library card number and pin, for collection from your local library.
As women's football, but not men's, has a team in the Tokyo games, we have included here a new publication on women's football, which has an introduction by Steph Houghton, one of the joint-captains of the Team GB squad. There are many more books about football for children.
Sporty stories for children
Meerkat's Marathon is a title in Froglet's Animal Olympics Series, which is aimed at beginner readers with stories of less than 200 words. The animal characters fit in very well with our Summer Reading Challenge theme of Wild World Heroes!
With over 200 titles in the Daisy Meadows collective of Rainbow Magic stories, it is no wonder that the books were described in the Telegraph as “loathed by parents, loved by children”. However, there is a ‘sporty fairies’ series, including Layne the surfing fairy, which is topical for this new Olympic sport. Reading for pleasure is good for children and the repetitive structure and vocabulary will help build girls' reading confidence: they will grow out of Daisy Meadows eventually!
For older girls aged 7-9 who love horses, try the Charlie Bass racehorse series by the Olympic presenter Clare Balding. The most recent has a focus on dressage, in The Racehorse who Learned to Dance.
Again for girls aged 7-9, Princess BMX is a funny debut by Marie Basting. It is a feisty story with a sporty theme.
This series for boys, aged 7-9, is in the ever popular Wimpy Kid style, with a character called Marcus, who is not interested in sport. Try Diary of a basketball hero or Diary of a taekwondo master.
For older children
"Hoop Kings
SOARing
in the SKY
so high
so fly
like they Got Wings"
Rebound is a coming-of-age novel in verse with comic book illustrations, about basketball, family and staying true to yourself. It is a prequel to The Crossover. Ages 11-14.
Summer Reading Challenge
Encourage youngsters to sign up for the Summer Reading Challenge at your local library. They may read any library books of their choice for this, including ebooks and audiobooks.