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Searching... Salem Main Library | J 921 Phelps, Michael 2009 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
What does it take to win eight gold medals?
Napping away three summer vacations?
Eating enough broccoli to fill the back of a pickup truck?
Swimming the length of the Great Wall of China three times?
Author Notes
Michael Phelps is an American swimmer. He holds the record for winning the most gold medals (8) in a single Olympics (2008). He has won 16 Olympic medals, 14 gold and two bronze. He holds seven world records and has over 20 World Championship medals. After returning home from Beijing in 2008, Michael used the well-publicized $1 million dollar Speedo bonus to start the Michael Phelps Foundation through which he hopes to encourage children to lead healthy, active lives, and to continue to grow the sport of swimming. He now resides in Baltimore, MD with his dog Herman.
Ward Jenkins is and illustrator and animator from Atlanta, Georgia. He's illustrated several picture books, including Chicks Run Wild , as well as the Good Crooks chapter book series. Ward lives with his wife and two kids and hasn't shaved his beard since 2010. Find him online at @WardOMatic.
Alan Abrahamson is an award-winning sportswriter and a recognized authority on the Olympics. In 2006, he left the Los Angeles Times, where he had been a staff writer for 17 years, to write for the NBC suite of online properties, which now includes NBCOlympics.com, NBCSports.com and UniversalSports.com. Since 2003, Alan has also served as a sports and Olympic analyst on NBC's television networks. Among other honors, Alan won the 2002 National Headliner Award for sports writing and was named the Los Angeles Press Club's 2004 sports journalist of the year. Alan and his wife, Laura, and their three children live in Southern California.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-A champion at the 2008 Beijing Olympics explains the training schedule that allowed him to accomplish the first-of-its-kind feat of winning eight Olympic gold medals. Comparisons are made that put miles swum, naps taken, calories eaten, weights lifted, etc., into a context that youngsters might more easily understand. For example, his six years of training (from 1998 to 2003) are described as "a kindergartner's whole life!" or "the same as 42 dog years!" Digitally rendered artwork humorously depicts the action, making the book visually appealing. The author states, "I got so strong from training that my legs could press 300 pounds 60 times in one workout. That's 18,000 pounds total, or nine tons! I could leg-press a Tyrannosaurus Rex and 10 velociraptors!" The illustration shows the smaller dinosaurs piled atop a T. rex on a platform while Phelps lifts them all with a leg-press machine. (However, the picture doesn't explain that he couldn't really lift that amount of weight all at once.) Providing an overview of an Olympian's rigorous preparations, this picture book may be useful for parents or coaches attempting to inspire children.-Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Swimming champ Phelps provides a playful account of what his preparation for the Beijing Olympics entailed. The text jumps from one analogy to the next, beginning with the six years he trained: "That's a kindergartener's whole life! That's the same as 42 dog years!" Some comparisons wow more than others, as when Phelps equates the 12,480 miles he swam while training to swimming the full length of the Great Wall of China three times ("Perfect! Now do it two more times," says his coach in the accompanying illustration, which shows the Great Wall as a pool that zigzags across mountains into the distance). Humorous but less compelling spreads demonstrate the time he spent napping during these training years. Many of the comparisons are downright silly, including the one that inspires the book's title, in which Phelps tallies the number of dinosaurs he could hypothetically leg-press in a single workout (nine tons worth). Debut illustrator Jenkins's digital cartoons comically mine this and other quirky references, depicting Phelps as a cheerful, larger-than-life caricature. Sports fans with a love of statistics should be both amused and impressed. Ages 4-8. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
With Alan Abrahamson. Phelps enthusiastically explains his hard work: "My legs could press three hundred pounds sixty times in one workout...I could leg-press a Tyrannosaurus Rex and ten velociraptors!" It's a creative approach, though the multitude of numbers and examples can be more confusing than illuminating. Cartoony digital illustrations of Michael (and bulldog Herman) accomplishing incredible things give readers plenty to look at. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The titular T. Rex only puts in a cameo but readers will still be wowed as super-swimmer Phelps recaps the six-year regimen that put him in shape to win a record eight Golds at the last Summer Olympics. He livens his recitation of laps and reps considerably with comparisons"I trained for six years! That's a kindergartener's whole life! That's the same as 42 dog years!"and after swimming 17 races in nine days to reach the finals won the 100-Meter Butterfly by 1/100th of a second: "about the length of a fingernail." In blocky digital paintings Jenkins stacks up pizza boxes, whole sports teams, Washington Monuments and herds of dinosaurs to back up the claims about distances run, calories consumed and weights lifted, and closes with a view of the athlete lounging on a sofa, holding a bowl of broccoli and thinking up new goals. (Perhaps appropriately for the audience but possibly compromising the book's timeliness, the athlete's suspension for smoking pot goes without mention.) Motivational and self-aggrandizing, like most of its ilk, but not too heavy-handed with the Message. (Informational picture book. 6-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gold medalist Phelps takes readers through the regimen he kept for six years that eventually led him to eight gold-medal victories at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Digitally rendered cartoon-style artwork depicts Phelps going through his training activities juxtaposed with the representations of comparable activities and measurements. This puts his activities into terms that young children can understand: six years equals a kindergartner's whole life; his daily three-hour nap equals three whole summer vacations; and so forth. The title and the cover, showing Phelps working out with a dinosaur, are misleading, as the T. rex is only mentioned as a comparison to show the strength of Phelps' legs: I could leg-press a Tyrannosaurus Rex and 10 velociraptors! This will not win any medals, but it is deserving of an audience. Share with children who enjoy How Much Is a Million? by David M. Schwartz (1985), or Mount Olympus Basketball, by Kevin O'Malley (2003).--Enos, Randall Copyright 2009 Booklist