Kid Athletes

September 1, 2015
Short vignettes skim through the childhoods of a gathering of sports heroes. The "True Tales" of the subtitle doesn't necessarily mean riveting tales, as Stabler proves with these mostly ho-hum glimpses at sporting legends such as Jackie Robinson, Bobby Orr, and Danica Patrick (there are 16 personalities all told). The book is divided into three sections: future stars who had to battle money or gender issues; kids who got family encouragement; kids who learned it takes practice, practice, practice. There is no hope if you can't coax a good story out of Babe Ruth, and Stabler can't: "So when Little George was seven, his parents asked a local official to declare him 'incorrigible' and to send him to a reformatory"-and the bulk of the entry focuses on young George's development of a moral compass under the tutelage of Brother Matthias. So what if Peyton Manning was traumatized by dancing a tango in a school play? Many readers will already have experienced greater embarrassments, and the implication that dancing is an activity not befitting a football player is positively retrograde. "When his father first strapped a pair of ice skates onto his son's feet, four-year-old Bobby [Orr] promptly fell onto the ice." Not breaking news. Horner's line drawings are a minor relief. Uneven to forgettable. (Nonfiction. 8-12)

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Starred review from September 1, 2015
Grades 3-6 *Starred Review* In this outstanding collection of sports stories, Stabler examines the childhoods of 16 athletes who grew up to leave indelible marks on their fields. While there may be a few unfamiliar names in the listsumo sensation Jesse Kuhaulua and sports Renaissance woman Babe Didrikson Zaharias, for examplemost kids will feel right at home among the likes of Babe Ruth, Gabby Douglas, Michael Jordan, and Muhammad Ali. In engaging prose, Stabler describes each sports legend as a youth, citing social obstacles (bullying, discrimination), unruly behavior, and physical challenges, such as being too tall (see basketball's seven-foot-six Yao Ming) or too small (soccer's five-foot-seven Lionel Messi), that were eventually overcome. A positive attitude and humor abound in all the stories, which receive a further assist from the color cartoon illustrations on every page. Kids will love reading about Peyton Manning dancing the tango in middle school or two-year-old Tiger Woods putting for a live TV audience. Though only 5 of the 16 people featured are women, there is a good show of diversityboth racial and economicamong those profiled. The book shines in its ability to make these legends relatable to young readers, and to place dreams of being a star athlete within the realm of possibility. Inspiring and entertaining, this isn't just for sports fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)