Good Sports: Rhymes about Running, Jumping, Throwing, and More

Exhilarating, all-new, kid-friendly rhymes capture the range of emotions, from winning to losing to the sheer joy of participating, that children experience as they discover the games of their choice. Jack Prelutsky, a virtuoso at making poetry fun for the elementary school crowd, includes in this inspired collection poems about baseball, soccer, football, skating, swimming, gymnastics, basketball, karate, and more. His signature lighthearted humor in verse that trips off the tongue is coupled here with the 2006 Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka's lickety-split, stylized (and stylish) watercolors. Every page is a blaze of color and motion. Whether Good Sports will create good sports remains to be seen, but it will prove to young boys (and girls) that reading poetry can be fun.

"Despite Raschka's (The Hello, Goodbye Window) action-filled illustrations, this collection of sports poems lacks pizzazz. The untitled verses brim with fairly obvious sports commentator clichs. A basketball player hopes to 'soar above the rim,' and a runner 'put[s] a burst of speed on.' Conversely, one pair of poems humorously contrasts the highs and lows of life on the field: a football player scores a touchdown and says, 'I love football. Football's fun,' but on the opposite page, Raschka pictures the same player fumbling the ball under a heap of opponents: 'I don't like this game,/ Not a bit, not at all.' The quick-dash brushstrokes imitate the athletes' movements. A gymnast's elongated leg stretches over her body on the balance beam and emulates the girl moving from one position to another. A baseball heading for a determined hitter trails a streak of color like a comet in the sky. Simulating the stop-animation film seen in television coverage of the Olympics, eight progressive versions of a basketball player depict his eventual delight at dunking the ball. Poems about the same sport are not grouped together but sprinkled throughout the book, and the effect is akin to clicking a TV remote through the sports channels. Although the first-person poems narrated by young athletes may disappoint readers, Raschka's high-speed artwork offers a whirl of color and breathless activity. Ages 8-up" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Prelutsky's signature humor in verse is coupled with stylized watercolors by 2006 Caldecott Medal winner Raschka in this collection of exhilarating rhymes capture the range of emotions that children experience as they discover the games of their choice. Full color.

Exhilarating, all-new, kid-friendly rhymes capture the range of emotions, from winning to losing to the sheer joy of participating, that children experience as they discover the games of their choice. Jack Prelutsky, a virtuoso at making poetry fun for the elementary school crowd, includes in this inspired collection poems about baseball, soccer, football, skating, swimming, gymnastics, basketball, karate, and more. His signature lighthearted humor in verse that trips off the tongue is coupled here with the 2006 Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka's lickety-split, stylized (and stylish) watercolors. Every page is a blaze of color and motion. Whether Good Sports will create good sports remains to be seen, but it will prove to young boys (and girls) that reading poetry can be fun.

Jack Prelutsky is widely recognized by elementary school teachers and students as the most popular poet working today. He has written more than 40 books of verse, including The New Kid on the Block, The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders, What a Day It Was at School, and compiled 11 poetry anthologies. He lives in Seattle, Washington.Chris Raschka has illustrated a number of distinguished picture books, including his Caldecott Honor Book Yo! Yes!, which he also wrote; A Poke in the I and A Kick in the Head, both compiled by Paul Janeczko; and the 2006 Caldecott Medal winner The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster. He lives in New York City.