Sports & Recreation

Dove

In 1965, 16-year-old Robin Lee Graham began a solo around-the-world voyage from San Pedro, California, in a 24-foot sloop. Five years and 33,000 miles later, he returned to home port with a wife and daughter and enough extraordinary experiences to fill this bestselling book, Dove.

The Greatest: Muhammad Ali (The Greatest)

Award-winning author Walter Dean Myers presents the amazing story of Muhammad Ali¹s childhood, his rise as a champion, his politics, and his battles against Parkinson¹s disease. Packed with dramatic black-and-white photos, this critically acclaimed biography is the perfect choice for both young adult sports fans and fans of Walter Dean Myers in general.

Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream

Before basketball star Michael Jordan's name was uttered reverently in households all over the planet, young Michael was just a shrimpy kid trying to play ball with the big boys in the neighborhood. Tired of being teased by the biggest boy on the court, Michael is convinced the only solution is to grow taller. His mama smilingly suggests putting salt in his shoes and saying a prayer every night. His daddy tells young Michael that "Being taller may help you play a little better, but not as much as practice, determination, and giving your best will. Those are the things that make you a real winner." And so they are. At 6-foot-6, Michael may not have grown up to be the tallest player on the court, but he sure did turn out to be one of the best!

As his mother and his sister, Deloris Jordan and Rosalyn Jordan are in a pretty good position to tell us all about what made Michael a star. They create an image of a cozy, loving family life any child would be happy to come home to. Award-winning illustrator Kadir Nelson's oil pictures of the gangly little Michael with hyperlong arms and oversized hands capture the preteen potential as well as his gawky grace. This warm, uplifting story will encourage young readers to chase their dreams with hard work and faith. (Ages 5 to 9) --Emilie Coulter

Michael Jordan.

The mere mention of the name conjures up visions of basketball played at its absolute best. But as a child, Michael almost gave up on his hoop dreams, all because he feared he'd never grow tall enough to play the game that would one day make him famous. That's when his mother and father stepped in and shared the invaluable lesson of what really goes into the making of a champion -- patience, determination, and hard work.

Deloris Jordan, mother of the basketball phenomenon, teams up with his sister Roslyn to tell this heartwarming and inspirational story that only the members of the Jordan family could tell. It's a tale about faith and hope and how any family working together can help a child make his or her dreams come true.

Woodsong

A LIFE AS EXCITING AS FICTION

Gary Paulsen, three-time Newbery Honor author, is no stranger to adventure. He has flown off the back of a dogsled and down a frozen waterfall to near disaster, and waited for a giant bear to seal his fate with one slap of a claw. He has led a team of sled dogs toward the Alaskan Mountain Range in an Iditarod -- the grueling, 1,180-mile dogsled race -- hallucinating from lack of sleep, but he determined to finish.

Here, in vivid detail, Paulsen recounts several of the remarkable experiences that shaped his life and inspired his award-winning writing.

A School Library Journal Best Book

A Booklist Editors' Choice

Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman

Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei

The story of Galileo is at once inspiring and troubling. The brilliant astronomer was a celebrated scientist who was showered with honors and patronage until his greatest discovery--that the earth circled the sun rather than the other way around--proved to be too much of a threat to prevailing orthodoxy. Peter Sis, author of the wonderful children's book Follow the Dream: The Story of Christopher Columbus, tells Galileo's tale for children ages 8 and older. A brilliant and sophisticated illustrator and a sensitive storyteller, he traces Galileo's life from childhood to his final days as a prisoner of the church. (Click to see a sample spread. © 1996 by Peter Sis. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.) (Ages 8 and older)

Within Reach: My Everest Story (Nonfiction)

Although Within Reach is targeted at young adults and written in a young man's voice, the writing (by coauthor Galvin) is engaging, and the story is rewarding enough to interest any mountaineer.

Pfetzer, 18 at the time of publication, describes his summits of a number of peaks worthy of a climber twice his age, including Huascarán, Aconcagua, Ama Dablam, Kilimanjaro, and Cho Oyu. He tells at length of his two expeditions to Everest, where he reached 25,000 feet from Tibet and 26,000 feet from Nepal. Purists may sneer, as all these climbs were commercial, guided expeditions--but heck, the kid was only 14 or 15; how else would he get there? And, though a paying client, he was unusually well prepared: a karate black belt (at age 11), courses in NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) and high-angle rescue, full EMT (emergency medical technician) training (even though he was too young to be licensed), in addition to being in top physical condition, which he rigorously maintained.

Pfetzer has regularly sought out older, more experienced mountaineers as mentors--somewhat rare for a teenager--and thanks them publicly for their teaching and wisdom. His love of climbing and determination to succeed are inspirational for all ages. --Donna DeShazo

The world's most famous teenage mountain climber offers an extraordinary personal account.

In May, 1996 the media scrambled to document the gripping and inspirational story of sixteen-year-old Mark Pfetzer's expedition to Mount Everest. Not only was he the youngest climber ever to attempt the summit, but he bore witness to the tragedy documented in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, in which eight climbers perished in a sudden storm. Within Reach is Mark's extraordinary personal account of this experience, and of his triumphs over several other challenging peaks. In this suspenseful, moment-by-moment, first-person narrative, Mark takes the reader past the ever-shifting Khumbu Icefall, over three-hundred-foot crevasses, and up into the high-altitude "Death Zone" of Everest. By turns triumphant, by turns tragic, this story will be an inspiration to climbers, athletes and armchair enthusiasts young and old.

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow

Teammates (A Voyager/Hbj Book)

On the Course with...Tiger Woods (Matt Christopher Sports Biographies)