Nadia ~ The Girl Who Couldn't Sit Still

 This is a perfect book for the season, especially if you have a gymnastics-crazy kid who cartwheels down the hall.

Nadia ~ The girl who couldn't sit still
by Karlin Gray; illus. by Christine Davenier
40 pages; ages 6-9
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016

Nadia Comaneci loved soccer, swimming, and climbing trees in the forests beyond her village of Onesti, Romania. "She didn't just climb the trees," writes Karlin Gray, "she swung from branch to branch until her family would call her home."

To find an outlet for all that energy, Nadia's mom signed her up for gymnastics classes. It would be great to just say ..."and the rest is history..." but that would ignore the years of hard work and learning that Nadia put into developing her skills on the bars and beam. It would ignore the falls and failures.

When she fell, Nadia picked herself up and brushed herself off and practiced some more until she perfected each move. Until she got first place in national competitions. Until she reached the Olympics in Montreal (1976). She whipped around the bars, balanced, flipped, and won the highest score ever - a perfect 10.

At the end of the competitions, Nadia took home five medals (three gold). Back home she did just what you'd expect a girl who couldn't sit still to do: keep on practicing.

On Monday  we're joining the roundup over at the Nonfiction Monday blog where you'll find even more book reviews Review copy provided by the publisher.

Alice Coachman Had a Dream

Queen of the Track: Alice Coachman, Olympic High-Jump Champion

By Heather Lang; illus. by Floyd Cooper

40 pages, ages 5 and up

Boyds Mills Press, 2012

 

“Alice Coachman was born to run and jump,” writes Heather Lang. “…Alice skipped through the fields. She hopped on rocks, She vaulted over anything that got in her way.” But in the 1930’s, running and jumping weren’t considered very ladylike. And besides, Alice had lots of chores to do after school. But she found time to run.

Alice grew up in the South at a time when black people didn’t have the same rights as white people. There were no parks or gyms or tracks where Alice could practice running and jumping – but she didn’t let that stop her. She ran barefoot on dirt roads. She collected sticks and tied rags together to make her own high jumps. Because Alice had a dream… she wanted to run in the Olympics.

With a record-breaking leap, Alice became the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. This is her story – the story of a girl who dreamed of running and who never took her eyes off the prize. Alice once told a New York Times reporter, “When the going gets tough and you feel like throwing your hands in the air, listen to that voice that tells you, ‘Keep going. Hang in there.’ Guts and determination will pull you through.”

Check out photos of Alice here. And check out other books that celebrate nonfiction at Nonfiction Monday, hosted this week by TheLibrariYAn. Review copy provided by the publisher.