Summer Olympics: The Definitive Guide to the World's Greatest Sports Celebration [Hardcover]

Clive Gifford (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Created by an award-winning author-and-illustrator team, Olympics sets the stage with facts, articles, and essential background information across the complete range of Olympic summer competition. Every aspect of the summer games is covered, including their history, the bidding process, training and qualifying, and life in the Olympic Village. Coverage of the events themselves captures the exhilaration of competing at the pinnacle of world sports—from explosive sprints and the grace of gymnastics to the proving grounds of endurance, the marathon and triathlon, and everything in between.

In addition, special spreads celebrate the great summer Olympics, from Stockholm 1912 to the record-breaking games of Sydney 2000. Olympic achievements are highlighted at the back of the book, bringing to life the great rivalries and honoring those competitors who battled adversity to shine on the world's stage.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8–A strong, ambitious, and useful title. Each subject is presented on a spread introduced by an enticing paragraph and accompanied by colorful, active photographs and diagrams. Subtopics are handled in lengthy paragraphs dynamically arranged across the pages. A historical introduction is followed by topical arrangements of the significance of the Olympics; track-and-field events; water events; precision, strength, and combat events; and cycling, equestrian, ball, and racket sports. They often include quick facts on past notable athletes, Olympic records, and stop-motion computer illustrations demonstrating how the sport is played. Each entry provides enough information to satisfy most casual readers, but many events are just mentioned in passing. Between these chapters there are features on past Games considered of particular significance such as those held in Berlin, Mexico City, and Sydney, but specific Olympiads are mostly underrepresented. The final section features facts, figures, and Olympic anecdotes. Overall, this is a worthwhile general addition to most collections as its usefulness will extend past this summer's games.–Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public Library, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

This ambitious and current title is a fantastic must-have in order to be prepared for this summer. (School Library Journal )

This companion to the 2004 Olympics compiles background information on athletic events and competitors...and outlines highlights of past Games. (Publishers Weekly )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Kingfisher (June 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0753456931
• ISBN-13: 978-0753456934
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #737,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Children's Books > Sports & Games > Sports > Olympics

More About the Author

Clive Gifford is an award-winning author of over 120 books for children and adults. These range from the serious (Refugees, Robots, Planet Under Pressure: Pollution, Spies and Spying) and sporty (with books on the Olympics, football and tennis) to the downright silly (Pants Attack, Kelly's Smelly Wellies, The Huge Rude Duke).

Clive has travelled through 70 countries, run a computer games company and taken part in all manner of sports from parachuting and gliding to Ultimate Frisbee (he was top scorer at the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg back in the nineties).

His books have been shortlisted for the TES Information Book of the Year and the British Book Awards as well as winning Smithsonian, Children's Choice, NAPPA and PBS awards. Sir Ranulph Fiennes called his latest book on Explorers, "An inspiration to all adventurers." whilst The Guardian declared that his Kingfisher Book Of Football "was worth a season's training" and the Manchester Evening News labelled it "The classiest football book around."

Clive's official website can be found at www.clivegifford.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ideal companion for young readers, July 17, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summer Olympics: The Definitive Guide to the World's Greatest Sports Celebration (Hardcover)

Superbly enhanced on every page with outstanding digital illustrations and visually impressive full color action photography, Clive Gifford's Summer Olympics: The Definitive Guide To The World's Greatest Sports Celebration is a complete survey and introduction to every Summer Olympics event. Also included is a great deal of background information on the training routines of top athletes of today and great athletic competitive rivalries of the past. Summer Olympics is the ideal companion for young readers with its showcasing of the world pinnacle for international sporting events and competitions.