I'm enjoying all of the little known history stories that have been published in the last few years, and Sakamoto's Swim Club is a wonderful addition for kids. The illustrations are incredible and while the text is very sparse, the images do a great job of telling the story. Seeing swimmers of color is essential for young kids, and provides important representation for those that have faced barriers in accessing water and water safety. I feel like it would have been fun to connect with one or two of the kids more deeply in this story (rather than focusing on the coach), but that this will engage kids of all backgrounds in the desire to chase after your dreams. The rhyming will make it memorable for young kids eager to read.

This picture book manages to tell its story twice. The adult or teacher will use the end-matter, which conveys factually the story of how a science teacher devoted himself to using nous and natural streams to train Hawaiian youth into swimmers that could compete at the Olympics. The pictured pages do the same for the younger users of this book – in the shortest of rhyming quatrains. The kids were constantly getting kicked out of the irrigation ditches on Maui's sugar plantations, until Coach turns up and inspires them – but what happens when there is no Olympic Games for them to compete at? I think the prime achievement of this book is two-fold. It's not the artwork, for I didn't find it particularly attractive – it did show just what it needed to, but in a style I wasn't fully on board with. But the two prongs that make this a success are the work done to provide the rhymes, and the discovery of the story itself, a real-life Hollywood-ending story of sports success. It makes this a compelling read for whoever turns to it.

Such an impactful true story retold!

I love, love, love the illustrations! It's so unique and I love the details in the art.

I love how this storybook tells the story of the almost forgotten important landmark in history regarding how a man changed the fate of kids to become Olympians and achieve their goals in the swimming sport.

Conditions in which the kids trained weren't the traditional ones where everyone else who would compete in such sports would have but this man made things possible through utter grit and discipline.

I appreciate how the story telling in the actual content consists of less words and how the summary of the history is included towards the end of the book alongwith real pictures.

Love this book!

Thank you, authors and the publisher for the advance reading copy.

This is the movie Cool Runnings but about a Hawaiian swim team and in a picture book! With abstract illustrations and a rhyming cadence this book tells the story of a swim club whose knowledge was almost lost to history. This book is fantastic but I want an adult historical fiction novel STAT on this topic as well.