Books in A True Book: Sports and Entertainment series

Though it began as a way to cheer on players of other sports, cheerleading has grown to become a popular competition in its own right.Readers (Grades 3-5) will find out how cheerleaders train to develop difficult routines and compete against each other. They will also how to perfect their own cheerleading abilities and find out what to expect when trying out for a cheerleading squad.

As the world's most popular sport, soccer is played everywhere from dusty streets and schoolyards to massive stadiums.Readers (Grades 3-5) will learn the rules of the game, get a close look at the layout of a soccer pitch, and find out what role different positions play on a team. They will also learn how to improve their ball-handling abilities and meet some of the biggest soccer stars of yesterday and today.

People in nearly every country on Earth love the high-scoring, fast-paced thrills of basketball.Readers (Grades 3-5) will find out what they need to get started playing this action-packed game and how they can improve their skills. They will also discover how basketball was first invented, how it grew to become a global sensation, and how its greatest players have changed the way the game is played .

People in nearly every country on Earth love the high-scoring, fast-paced thrills of basketball.Readers (Grades 3-5) will find out what they need to get started playing this action-packed game and how they can improve their skills. They will also discover how basketball was first invented, how it grew to become a global sensation, and how its greatest players have changed the way the game is played .

As the world's most popular sport, soccer is played everywhere from dusty streets and schoolyards to massive stadiums.Readers (Grades 3-5) will learn the rules of the game, get a close look at the layout of a soccer pitch, and find out what role different positions play on a team. They will also learn how to improve their ball-handling abilities and meet some of the biggest soccer stars of yesterday and today.

Wilma Rudolph was born black in Jim Crow Tennessee. The twentieth of 22 children, she spent most of her childhood in bed suffering from whooping cough, scarlet fever, and pneumonia. She lost the use of her left leg due to polio and wore leg braces. With dedication and hard work, she became a gifted runner, earning a track and field scholarship to Tennessee State. In 1960, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games. Her underdog story made her into a media darling, and she was the subject of countless articles, a television movie, children’s books, biographies, and she even featured on a U.S. postage stamp. In this work, Smith and Liberti consider not only Rudolph’s achievements, but also the ways in which those achievements are interpreted and presented as historical fact. Theories of gender, race, class, and disability collide in the story of Wilma Rudolph, and Smith and Liberti examine this collision in an effort to more fully understand how history is shaped by the cultural concerns of the present. In doing so, the authors engage with the metanarratives which define the American experience and encourage more complex and nuanced interrogations of contemporary heroic legacy.