SAKAMOTO'S SWIM CLUB

A science teacher trains kids who are playing in irrigation ditches how to swim, eventually leading them to the Olympics.

In the 1930s, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, migrant workers cut sugar cane, leaving their kids to their own devices. In the hot sun, the kids swim and dive in the irrigation ditches that run through the fields, but the police yell at them and chase them out. When science teacher Soichi Sakamoto sees this, he decides to help the kids. He convinces the authorities to let the kids use the ditch, which he trains them to treat like a swimming lane. Sakamoto creates a daily program for them to follow, making his students swim upstream to make them stronger. Over time a pool is built, and the Three-Year-Swim Club is established with dreams of the Olympics. But war interrupts their dreams until they finally get their chance in the 1948 Olympics. Told in clipped, rhyming verse, this is a quick, simplified account of a lesser-known inspirational story in sports history. Sakamoto and the swimmers’ journey to the Olympics exemplifies perseverance and determination. It is an excellent read-aloud, with additional information for adults to give context in the form of an author’s note that provides the story again in prose, with more details and additional facts. The illustrations are full of bright colors, befitting the beautiful landscape; both kids and Sakamoto are depicted with brown skin and black hair. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Exudes inspiration and dedication.