Sakamoto's Swim Club: How a Teacher Led an Unlikely Team to Victory by Chris Sasaki, Julie Abery
Published by Kids Can Press on May 4, 2021
ISBN: 1525300318
Pages: 40
Format: Picture Book Fiction
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Sakamoto’s Swim Club

 

In the Hawaiian sugar plantations there are irrigation ditches in which children swim to cool off.  When a teacher, Soichi Sakamoto, sees them he sticks up for them using the ditches and soon becomes their coach.  Even without a pool they practice and train until a pool is built for them.  Soon the Olympics of 1948 arrives in which their own Bill Smith wins a gold medal and sets an Olympic record.  These swimmers were not well known, so this picture book is very valuable.

All the resources in the list included were from hawaiiswim.org which also shows that the so-called Three-Year Swim Club needs to be read about and shared over a large area.  The illustrations are vibrant and excellent.

 

Ellen Spring, Oceanside High School, Rockland