In-Line Skating in the X Games

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-Slim, action-packed titles. Each page of large-print text faces a full-page color photo, making the books appealing to reluctant readers. The volumes are fairly informative, with quite a bit of description on the basics of each sport. Female athletes appear in two of them. Safety warnings appear on the verso pages-not a place most kids would notice. There is a questionable choice of glossary terms-"midair," "athletes," and "medals" are rather basic terms that the audience for these books will be familiar with. The quality of the color photos varies. In-Line Skating has the best action shots; the special effects in Street Luge make a few of the pictures seem fuzzy and surreal. Wakeboarding only shows one of the three obstacles important to many of the tricks performed. Tracy Nelson Maurer's Wakeboarding (Rourke, 2002) has better photos, more basic information, steps to performing actual tricks described in the text, and a discussion of wakeskating. Reading all three of Blomquist's titles results in duplication of facts, so most libraries would do better with one book about extreme sports and X Games.-Kate Kohlbeck, Randall School, Waukesha, WI Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.