The Ancient Olympics

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-The layout of these books tends to be a bit busy or scattered, with several images on every spread along with sidebars and boxed facts. Gaff includes a great deal of information about the ancient games with informative illustrations, most of which are reproductions of artifacts, with a few diagrams. This title also has a time line covering 776 B.C.E.-2004. Terms such as periodonikes, paidotribes, hellanodikai, and pancratium are used throughout without benefit of a pronunciation guide. Modern Olympics describes the development of the games including the Paralympics for disabled athletes. It has many full-color photos and mentions the bribery scandals related to site selection, terrorism incidents, and the use of illegal drugs. In the discussion of the Special Olympics, the term "mental retardation" is used. This title has much of the same information as Middleton's Modern Olympic Games (Heinemann Library, 1999), but the stats have been updated. Of course in this year of the 100th anniversary of the modern games and their return to Greece, libraries may want both titles.-Kate Kohlbeck, Randall School, Waukesha, WI Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.