This is an biography book about famous athletes in America. The main point of the book is to give brief information about famous athletes. I liked this book. One thing that I liked about it was that it group the athletes into categories based on situations or sports. For example one category said “Cool in the Clutch: Some athletes thrive on pressure, performing best when time is running out or when one final, superhuman effort is needed to turn defeat into victory.” The athletes included in this category were all people who thrived in these kind of situations such as Mary Lou Retton, who scored two perfect tens to win first at the 1984 Olympics, and “The Comeback Kid” John Elway who led his team to win thirty-seven comeback victories.” Another category was “Baseball’s Hall of Fame: According to legend, baseball was first played in Copperstown, New York in 1839. That’s why the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was built there 100 years later. Millions of visitors have enjoyed seeing plaques and other exhibits that honor baseball’s best players.” Included in this category were “The Say-Hey Kid” Willie Mays who was one of two players with a career total of more than 3,000 hits and 600 home runs, and “The Pride of the Yankees” Lou Gehrig who replaced the first baseman on his day off and was so good he continued playing for fourteen years. A second thing I really liked about this book was the layout. There is a background picture relevant to the category and then there were pictures of the athletes with small shaped blurbs over top of the background. Normally, I would find a layout like this distracting or confusing, but I think because there is so little information in the blurbs and the athletes are grouped by category already, it worked for this book. ( )

This is an informational text that talks about famous athlete throughout the century. It is a great tool to show students how information can be organized and how picture can help conveying messages. ( )

Great book with pictures of important people in history. This book briefly talks about famous athletes such as Michael Jordan, Mary Lou, Tiger Woods, Florence Griffith, etc. There are important dates and facts.

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