Rafa Nadal by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara is another gem in the Little People, Big Dreams series. I love these books—they’re filled with fascinating facts and vibrant illustrations.

Born in Majorca, Spain, little Rafa loved football and tennis, encouraged by his uncles. Excelling in tennis, he turned professional at fifteen. By twenty-two, he was the world’s number one and has since won twenty-two Grand Slams. His confidence, perseverance, and determination have driven his success.

This book is easy to read with beautiful illustrations. I highly recommend it and the entire series!

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for an e-ARC

I thought this was such a great biography of the tennis player Rafa Nada. Little People Big Dreams is a great picture board series about different people. I like learning about Rafa and how he got started playing tennis.

I love the books in this series and always find something new in them.

This was a book that focused on a famous tennis player and sporting legend - Rafael Nada, or Rafa as he is called in this book - with this book we get to read a little about his early life and his adventures in his quest to succeed - he is a real role model with some superb determination and a brilliant drive to succeed.

Rafa is a true inspiration and although he is now moving away from playing so many professional tournaments he is still a power in the sport and his coaching school will be creating the tennis stars of the future.

Lovely images and another great addition to the series - it is 4 stars from me for this one

One more cute book of "Little People, BIG DREAMS" collection.
I liked the story and the art. I didn't know Rafa's story before but I liked it!

Thanks #NetGalley!

I found the illustrations about Nadal’s earlier years to be very expressive and engaging.
Another great addition to the series and this was interesting and useful as usual,
Some of our favourites blend in the messages such as perseverance, and discipline matter and that the weight of luck is still big slightly better than this one.

Little People, Big Dreams is one of my favourite series of books and I was so pleased to come across this title featuring Rafa Nadal! Like the other books in this series, this title tells an inspirational biography. We learn of Rafa Nadal's childhood journey into tennis and his dedication to becoming the best tennis player in a generation. (I'm sure Rafa would have also been great at football too! It's a fun thought experiment to wonder what would have happened if he had chosen that over tennis.) Marked by persistence and hard work, Rafa's tennis career features both the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Young readers will be inspired by Rafa's story whether they are interested in sport or not. Resilience, persistence, and devotion are underscored as Rafa's secrets to success and the story serves to inspire as well as celebrate a great athlete!

Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Group for a complimentary eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Another wonderfully illustrated book about one of the greatest athletes of the last few years. The book follows Rafal Nadal's tennis career from his childhood to winning grand slams in easily understandable steps. A great and inspiring story for any young athlete!

A very short summary of Rafa's life story from where it all started to what he's achieved. This does not have abundant information but gives a decent introduction to Rafa. My main concern with this book is the illustration. None of them look even remotely close to Rafa expect for the head band. Since this is a picture book, it was a bummer to not connect with the images.
Thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Switching from art to sports, the next book that caught my eye was a children's book about the world-famous tennis player Rafael Nadal. Personally, I haven't been very involved with the world of tennis, and it's a good day if I know the names of the top athletes. I figured, since I had started exploring new topics, why not continue and educate myself alongside children around the world? 😊

Rafael Nadal is a tennis player from Spain. When Nadal was young, his uncles taught him both football and tennis. Rafael was very good at both, but he seemed to have a special, innate talent for tennis. As we know, he chose to pursue tennis, and the rest is history. A top athlete was born, captivating millions with his skills and abilities. We can only hope that future little global citizens will draw inspiration from this book and that, in a few decades, we will meet new superstars following in Nadal's footsteps.

The illustrations in this book are quite different from those in the Vincent van Gogh book. This time, they are done in digital art, with a style and pastel color palette that perfectly suit the world of tennis. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to young readers and sports enthusiasts! 😊

Thank you so much, NetGallery and Frances Lincoln Children's Books, for this wonderful reading experience and for the ARC copy!

Review in Estonian (Aug 26, 2024): https://brixieblog.wordpress.com/2024/08/26/rafa-nadal-maria-isabel-sanchez-vegara/

I love reading these books to my daughter, its such a good way of explaining important historical figures to her in a way that is understandable for a young audience. I would highly recommend these and will be keeping my eyes out for similar books in the future

This is the second book I have read in this series and have found them to be very informative for children getting across the most important points and keeping them interesting for a young audience.

The Nadal book gets across his most important stats and 14 time Men's champion of Roland Garros. Probably a record never to be equalled and has earned his place in tennis history.

Great book in a great series and a must for parents and teachers. This book will really help children understand the importance of resilience and working hard if you want to be the best. Really nice insight into Rafa too.

Rafa Nadal is a champion tennis player who has won titles throughout the tennis world. In this great addition to her Little People Big World biography series, Vegara has penned a great introductory biography of the athlete. By starting her books with a story about the athlete when they are very little, she captures the young reader's interest. The book tells about all his successes, but also stresses that he Nadal has had to work through many injuries, to heal and then return to the court. She also includes a little of his activities outside the sport, thus showing that balance is as important as perseverance. Rocio Ledesma has provided realistic illustrations to help tell the story. I only have one small complaint about the book. In the story, the author mentions several different titles that Nadal has won. But the fact that he won Olympic gold medals twice is only mentioned in the fine print of the afterward. I feel that this fact should have been included in the main story. Otherwise, this is a solid read and I would recommend it to young sports fans and biography readers.

I accessed a few temporary ebooks in this series from the publisher, but the opinions written in the reviews are entirely my own.

"Rafa remains what he's always been: a humble champion and an exceptional human being."

I didn't know much about Rafa apart from that he played tennis. It was interesting to see with the help and encouragement from his family especially from his uncle that he is what he is today. He is a role model not just through the tennis world by being down to earth especially with his charity work and just being a good human being by helping whenever something needed doing. A good lesson that many children can learn to live by.

I loved the illustrations as perusal

Thank you Netgalley for a couple of the book for an honest review.

Another wonderful book by the author. The pictures are excellent and the book has many facts, great for an introductory biography. I think kids would need to be tennis fans to be engaged with the book.

Another good one from the "Little People, Big dreams" series. I had heard about Rafa Nadal, but didn't know much about him.
This was a good introduction. Well written and illustrated.

This title seemed less personal than the rest of the books in this series. The focus mainly on his sports career made it seem one dimensional.

I absolutely love the 'Little People, BIG DREAMS' series and the different types of people that are chosen to be the main character in every one of the books. The books are a perfect way to introduce inspiring people, that all have their own story of how they came to be where they are today.

In this particular one, the story is about Nadal's claim to success and the successes he's experienced on the tennis court.
On top of that, there is also a mention of his charity work.

I found this particular book in the series a little flatter than other ones, cause Nadal's story was success upon success upon success.
However, it made for a great introduction and as always the story is accompanied by wonderful illustrations.

Definitely recommend! Thanks for the ARC!

Kudos to Rafa’s uncle who believed and saw potential in him since he was literally a toddler, but the narrative of this one wasn't my fav. It mostly just listed Rafa’s wins, even though they’re still amazing. But still felt not like a good storytelling material.

This was very sweet! Rafa Nadal always struck me as one of the most down to earth athletes, and this little glimpse of his beginnings proves that. This not only covers his career but also the way he helps his home city through charity and even when he was young, cleaned the tennis courts he practiced on.