Your Friend, Crystal Hubbard

Dear Reader,

When I was eight-years-old, I met a professional tennis player named Arthur Ashe. He was a very nice man who didn’t look like an athlete. He was tall and skinny and wore big glasses. I thought he looked like a teacher, not the number-one tennis player in the world!

Mr. Ashe was very nice to me. In the course of his career in tennis, he was very kind to a lot of people. He wanted people to behave nicely toward each other, and to help each other.  He was a hero on the tennis court and off of it.

When my children’s book editor asked me if I wanted to write a book about Arthur Ashe, I said YES! Game, Set, Match, Champion Arthur Ashe is the story of Arthur Ashe’s life, from his childhood in segregated Richmond, Virginia to his death at the age of 49.  I wrote the book because I wanted everyone to know about a remarkable man who used his tennis fame to help end racial segregation in South Africa and to raise awareness and research funds for AIDS.

Arthur Ashe met athletes, world leaders, and celebrities all over the world.  But when I met him a second time in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, he remembered me. Me! A funny-looking kid in pigtails! He also remembered the names of all my sisters.

In reading Game, Set, Match, Champion Arthur Ashe, I’ve tried to show young readers the man, the champion, who tried to make the world a better place.

I hope you enjoy this story!

Sincerely,

Crystal Hubbard

Download a copy of “Your Friend, Crystal (A Letter to Readers)” HERE.

For more about Crystal Hubbard, visit her website HERE.

Rodeo and More!

Rodeo, a sport?  Yes, indeed.  Rodeo is the United States only “home-grown” sport.  Interest and participation in rodeo competition has been soaring. RODEO by Robin Johnson will bring readers right into the arena where the dust is swirling and cowboys and cowgirls are getting ready to ride a rearing-kicking bronco or a twisting, spinning Brahma bull. Young readers will thrill to read about the speed and spins of barrel racers in this exciting book.

COWGIRL by Murray Tinkelman, (Out of Print) is a classic look at this “made in America” sport.

“Let’s have a big round of applause for our first cowgirl competitor at this rodeo,” the announcer booms.  And out she races! Readers will follow the action from the grooming of a rider’s horse to the winning of a barrel-racing event as rodeo cowgirls compete in COWGIRL or in RODEO DAY (Out of Print) by JoNelle Toriseva, illustrated by Robert Casilla. Put on your chaps and spurs, shove back your broad-brimmed hat and get ready to ride.

What a surprise! Take a gander at WHITE DYNAMITE AND CURLY KIDD by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Ted Rand.

Not your usual picture book, but a delightful, cowpoke dialogue between champion bull-riding Dad and his “waiting-to-be”  bull-riding kid.

“Are ya’ scared, Dad?” the child asks the dad, Curly, the toughest bull rider east or west of the Mississippi.

“Nope.” Dad answers with his usual one-word reply.  We follow them both as they straighten chaps, tighten  boots and push back broad-brimmed hats getting ready to ride the meanest, toughest bull in the West – White Dynamite.

Bull riding, some say, is the most dangerous sport….Yep. Could be.

NATIVE ATHLETES IN ACTION! by Vincent Schilling.

Schilling is an enrolled member of the St. Regis, Mohawk Tribe and an athlete who runs, bikes, skis, swims – and writes! 7th This collection of stories highlights the achievements of thirteen champion American Indian athletes: Jordin Tootoo, Inuit, hockey; Cheri Becerra-Madsen, Omaha, wheelchair racer;  Alwyn Morris, Mohawk, kayaking; Stephanie Murata, Osage, wrestler; Cory Witherill, Navajo, Indy Race Car driver; and Delby Powless, Mohawk, lacrosse.  Each story shares the excitement of the sport and the importance of the choices individuals made to become champions.

KICKERS! by Rich Wallace

It’s always a treat to find books that I’m thrilled to pass along to students – both boys and girls – and KICKERS is one such series. The stories move quickly, the action is fast-paced, and each book delivers a realistic view of team sports and the challenges individual players must overcome in order to have fun and be the best athletes they can be.

In Book #1, THE BALL HOGS, nine-year-old Ben has just joined his first soccer team and it’s obvious Ben and his fellow Bobcat teammates have a lot to learn. Not only is Mark, one of the members on the team, a ball hog, but Ben soon discovers that he is, too.

The game is new for most of the players, but coach Patty sees their potential and from one week to the next, the team begins to pull together.

Book #2, FAKE OUT: Ben’s working on some new moves that he hopes will pull his team out of its slump. But things aren’t going exactly as Ben had planned.  Is Ben in over his head and out of his league?

In the third book, BENCHED, Ben discovers that being an excellent soccer player takes more than skill and natural athletic ability. This time, Ben’s temper is getting in the way and when he finds himself thrown out of the game, Ben must come to terms with the difficulties of learning how to control his emotions.

Watching from the sidelines, Ben begins to understand that teamwork and self-control take practice and by the time the Bobcats play the Sharks for a spot in the playoffs, Ben’s learned a lot about what it means to play by the rules, be in control, and enjoy the thrill of an earned win.

GAME DAY JITTERS, Book #4, follows Ben and his teammates to their biggest challenge yet. The playoffs! As if the pressure weren’t already more than enough, Shayna’s ankle is sore and Coach Patty decides to give her a break and put Ben in as team goalie, even though he’s only played the position a few times all season. Will Ben and his teammates be successful in pulling off the semi-final win that will take them to the championship game?

View a Tool Box post HERE.

All Around Good Sports

OWEN FOOTE, SOCCER STAR by Stephanie Greene

Owen Foote has been playing soccer on the playground at Chesterfield School since kindergarten, but this year he’s in second grade. This year, kids join the town league where they get to play on a real soccer field. Owen can’t wait! In fact, he loves soccer so much, that he’s spent the whole summer convincing his best friend, Joseph, to play.  “All you have to do is run and kick,” Owen had said. “Great,” Joseph had answered. “The two things I can’t do.”

In spite of all that, the boys are excited when they end up on the same team. But when Dave, the coach, decides to split the team up into Aliens I and Aliens II and one of the bigger kids starts to make fun of Joseph, calling him the Chesterfield Klutz, Owen suddenly realizes soccer’s going to be a lot more complicated than it’s ever been.

Readers will love the humor throughout and the way Owen works through these unexpected challenges to find a way to honor his friendship with his best buddy, Joseph.

(View a Tool Box post HERE.)

GOAL! by Mina Javaherbin, illustrated by A. G. Ford

Soccer – or football, as it’s known in most countries – is a game played and enjoyed by children and adults the world over.  Goal! is about the power of small things and the joy and freedom Ajani and his friends experience when they play with Ajani’s new federation-size football in the often, unsafe streets of a South African township. Bullies patrol the streets, but the boys have a plan and when they play, “the sound of our kicks on the ball is music.”

SUGAR AND ICE by Kate Messner

Claire Boucher loves her home in Mojimuk Falls, skating on the frozen cow pond, and helping her family on their maple farm. She’s perfectly happy going to school, working as a junior coach for the Northern Lights Skating Club, and hanging out with her best friend, Natalie. But all that changes after Claire is offered a scholarship to train at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, too good to pass up.

But once the training begins, Claire discovers it’s not so easy finding her balance in a competitive arena full of mean-girl skaters. Will she manage to keep her scholarship and her commitment to see things through to a satisfactory end?

WATCH ME THROW THE BALL! by Mo Willems

Like all the Elephant and Piggie books, Watch Me Throw the Ball!, features best friends, Gerald, the cautious and careful elephant, and fun-loving Piggie. As far as Gerald is concerned, ball-throwing is serious business. But Piggie has a special move that brings all that seriousness into question. What Mo Willems achieves through a few small changes of expression on Elephant and Piggie’s faces is priceless.

STRONG MAN: The Story of Charles Atlas by Meghan McCarthy

Charles Atlas, born Angelo Siciliano, grew up on the streets of New York over a hundred years ago. His small size made it hard to stand up for himself in the face of those who were bigger and stronger. When Angelo notices a statue of Hercules at a local museum, he dreams of being as muscular and strong as the Greek god. Amazingly, hours watching the animals in the zoo led Angelo to discover the fitness routine that would eventually lead him to earn the title of “The World’s Most Perfectly Developed Man.”

Engaging illustrations, a compact story-line, and endnotes, including four “Try It Yourself” exercises for kids make this an excellent nonfiction read.

GOOD SPORTS by Jack Prelustsky, illustrated by Chris Raschka

Running, jumping, throwing. Swinging, springing, somersaulting. Prelustsky’s poems paired with Raschka’s exhuberant watercolors bring good sporty fun to the page.

OWEN FOOTE: SOCCER STAR by Stephanie Greene

This Tool Box post features a Readers’ Theatre script dramatizing a scene in which cool, seventh grade Clyde teaches Owen the nuances of sportsmanlike conduct and standing up for oneself.

You’re a smart kid, Owen, and you’re a nice kid, too. But sometimes, being a nice kid is tough on a guy, you know what I mean? (51)

To download the Readers’ Theatre Script for Chapter 4 -Pardon My Fat Foot click here.  Reader’s Theatre – Owen Foote Soccer Star

Sports Novels

This month, ReaderKidZ is talking about sports books for the K-5 reader and we’re thrilled to point readers to a terrific Horn Book article by Dean Schneider.

Though not strictly about books for the elementary student,  you’ll notice a mention of this month’s Author-In-Residence, Rich Wallace, as well as other important observations about – to use Schneider’s words – “the power of good writing on subjects kids care about.”

Enjoy the article here:  What Makes a Good Sports Novel?

Athletes With the Courage to Excel

Many world-recognized athletes have had to overcome prejudice and other obstacles as children. Swimming pools only open to them one day a week. Tennis courts declared off limits. Sports leagues closed to them because of their color. Barriers of every kind. The following books tell the stories of several of them in ways young readers will relate to and be inspired by.

Crystal Hubbard’s GAME, SET, MATCH, CHAMPION ARTHUR ASHE, illustrated by Kevin Belford, is the story of Ashe’s longing, courage, and persistence to learn tennis and become a champion, and then work against segregation so all athletes could compete in both worlds, white and black.

Ashe’s tennis skill earned him the first scholarship given by UCLA to a black tennis player. As a champion international athlete, Arthur Ashe worked for freedom for all athletes to train and compete, regardless of color or nationality.  He established tennis clinics in inner cities where there were few courts and no coaches.  When, at the age of thirty-six, Arthur suffered a heart attack that required surgery and contracted AIDS as the result of a blood transfusion, he became one of the first world champions to say to the world, “I have AIDS.” (View a Tool Box post on Arthur Ashe HERE.)

ALL STAR! HONUS WAGNER AND THE MOST FAMOUS BASEBALL CARD EVER by Jane Yolen, illustrated  by Jim Burke.

Not all readers know the story of the most famous baseball card in history – the Honus Wagner card – which sold for $3 million dollars in 2007!  Some say Wagner’s arms were so long, he could tie his shoes without bending over.  For many years, he held the record for the most home runs, RBI, doubles, triples, and stolen bases than any player in the National League.  A kid from a mining family who had to quit school in sixth grade to work in the mines, Wagner’s passion was to “play ball,” and did he ever! Quite a player and best of all, quite a story.

LOUIS SOCKALEXIS: Native American Baseball Pioneer by Bill Wise, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth.

“The stadium was packed…It was the top of the first inning…Louis Sockalexis was scheduled to bat third.” But the crowd didn’t want an “Indian” playing this white man’s sport. Louis had to listen to the crowd’s jeering cries, “Get a tomahawk, not a bat!”

Batting not only for his team, but for his Penobscot tribe, the intrepid Sockalexis hit the farthest home run ever seen at that time. He became the first Native American to play in the major leagues, leading the way for others to follow, including the legendary Jim Thorpe (see, JIM THORPE’S BRIGHT PATH by Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by S. D. Nelson), and fifty years later, in 1945, Jackie Robinson, the first African American to join a major league team.

SIXTEEN YEARS IN SIXTEEN SECONDS: the Sammy Lee Story by Paula Yoo and illustrated by Dom Lee.

Sammy Lee was a Korean-American boy who dreamed of winning at the Olympics and becoming a doctor. As a young man, he  practiced dives in a backyard self-dug sandpit and trained for sixteen years for Olympic competition that would last sixteen seconds – the time from his first dive to when his scores were posted. Lee also served as a doctor in the Korean War and successfully competed in the 1952 Olympics, defending his 1948 Olympic diving title. (View a Tool Box post HERE.)

SURFER OF THE CENTURY: The Life of Duke Kahanamoku by Ellie Crowe, illustrated by Richard Waldrep.

Duke Kahanamoku loved to swim and surf in the ocean surrounding his Hawaiian island home.  He became an Olympic gold medal champion and a six-time medal winner, competing in the Stockholm Games in 1912. Called the “Duke” because of his speed and endurance as a swimmer, he was the fastest swimmer in the world for more than a decade.  But surfing remained the Duke’s passion. Board surfing had been the sport of Hawaiian kings for at least a thousand years.  The Duke rode the waves around the world to introduce surf-boarding as a serious sport.

PELÉ by Monica Brown, illustrated by Rudy Gutiérrez.

Every young soccer player knows the name Pelé. The story of a boy from Brazil who practiced in his bare feet, kicking a homemade ball made of newspapers, is a perennial favorite.  Pelé grew up to become the world’s recognized “King of Soccer.” His life is an amazing tale of determination and passion. (View a Tool Box post HERE.)