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Abery, Julie

Sakamoto's Swim Club: How a Teacher Led an Unlikely Team to Victory

40 pp. | Kids Can | May, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-5253-0031-8 $17.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Chris Sasaki. When a science teacher in 1930s Maui, Hawaii, notices the sugar plantation police chasing neighborhood children out of irrigation ditches on hot days, he comes up with a plan--to persuade the sugar company to let the children swim under his guidance. This book provides a brief glimpse into the creativity and perseverance that took these bored kids and a local teacher from an irrigation ditch to Olympic gold. The text is somewhat limited by its form: rhyming couplets split into very short lines. It's a choice that often leaves readers wanting more information--we read "science teacher's / new approach / turns him into / master coach" but don't learn anything about that new approach or why it is so successful (the appended note helps fill in some of the text's blanks). The art is where this story comes to life--Sasaki's (Home Is a Window, rev. 3/19; Paper Son, rev. 11/19) painterly digital illustrations play with perspective and make the water and Hawaiian flora jump off the page. Back matter offers opportunities to learn more about Coach Sakamoto and the swimmers he trained in the Three-Year Swim Club. A brief but compelling introduction to an unlikely sports hero.
Reviewer: Laura Koenig | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

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