Contests Books

This is one of the most used books on our shelf. The kids love to hear it and I love to read it. Anyone who has suffered through unwanted childhood lessons (piano, dance, etc) will relate to the cut-ups predicament.

DOUBLE TWIST finds Laura and Patrick gearing up to compete in an ice-dancing championship in Montreal. This time, they expect a medal. Their excitement overpowers the strenuous workouts, until an accident ruins their plans. When Patrick goes down, his knee prevents him from dancing again, until after the competition. Laura sinks into depression, until she thinks of a brilliant plan to stay in the competition.

During normal skating hours at the rink, Laura spies one boy showing off his footwork. He looks like he has all the right moves, and with a little work, she has a new skating partner. Keeping him as a partner is an entirely different matter. Boys tease him about ice-dancing, but Laura finds a way to make it more appealing. Together Laura and Scott work on a hip-hop ice-dancing routine. The uniqueness of their dancing could ultimately blow up in their faces, but they're willing to work like crazy and have a little fun to try something completely new.

This novel is great fun and will be popular with girls looking for more sport books. The book, set in the U.K., is half-Americanized, making the reader wonder exactly where it is located. At the championship, Scott and Laura are announced as the team from the U.K., but it's never revealed beforehand. Words like Mum and soccer make it a little bit hard for the reader to figure out the setting. However, this slight issue did not take away from the enjoyment of the book.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel

This book is suitable for a teacher who has just started the topic of division with their class. A good resource to base activities on, encourage interest in the topic and to aid understanding.

This book takes you through all of the Fifa soccer teams. It even talks about the teams in depth, like about their past history of goals and victories, and even in losses. It takes you to the best players on those teams and tells the victories or losses that the player had on the team. On the players, it will also tell you all the clubs they were part of and their avarage goals they made in the past. So I think think this book is really good for you if you love a lot of European International Soccer. Even some of it will take you through the Ebglish football scene.

There are alot of very commonplace activities in this book (like "potluck lunch" and "the rev-up session"). But there are also sufficient gems that make it (particularly at this price) a good resource. Beginning and intermediate team motivators will find it particularly useful in providing creative ways to motivate their group. The format is easily understandable with the sub-headings they provide. Definitely worth looking at.

Carrie's lost her edge. She's tired of her life being only about tennis and missing out on parties, trips to the mall with her friends, and boys. More than anything, Carrie's really tired of the pressure from her parents to be the best, especially when she's not sure she still wants to play tennis.

During a tournament, Carrie makes a drastic decision and fakes a leg injury, withdrawing from competition. Her coach realizes Carrie's lie and pushes her student into a camp in Florida, away from her controlling parents. In a month, Carrie must decide if she wants to continue playing and how hard she's willing to work to achieve her dream.

GAME, SET, AND MATCH is just one of the sports books in Donna King's repertoire that prove she knows all about sports, pressure, and the desire to win. Her books fill a much-needed gap in sports fiction for girls.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel

Not teachy, not preachy, it's funny, it rhymes!
Louise is a heroine ripe for our times,
A sweet little stinkbug with only one friend.
(All the others stay well upwind,
But reform themselves in the formula end.)
Hold your nose and buy it anyway
There's lots of charm along the way.

This book has a large number of simple chocolate recipes all in one place. Nothing too original, but useful.

This is a reference book for contests. I wish I had purchased it earlier and used the information to enter DRF/NTRA contests. If you are interested in participating in contests this is a must. Mr. Michaels should have an inexpensive way (web site?) of updating his readers annualy or as needed regarding contests. I don't see any reason future contest "books" need to be priced over $10.

This book features kid-friendly (bright and not too cluttered) illustrations and softly humorous text. Each of the 40 pages (divided into three short chapters) has pictures and just a few sentences, making this a great beginning reader's book or a fun story for adults to read out loud.

There is a nice message about variety: Mudge meets and enjoys other dogs; the snowman contest features many different snowman ideas and decorations... Light and simple, but done very well.