Soontornvat, C. All 13: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team, (2020), Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
This book is excellent. I know this to be true. That being said, I could care less about it from a personal perspective. Luckily, I am not a 7th grader! I think those kids will eat it up. It won a Siebert honor and a Newbery honor which says a lot about the quality. The story is zippy, the text is a manageable size and the pictures are immediate and fantastic. The size of the book will likely appeal to the kind of kid who wants to look like they are reading big books, but it also has great readability.
I don’t love that there doesn’t seem to be a paperback in the works, at least according to the publisher. So many great middle grade nonfiction books really drag their heels on the path to becoming more affordable.
The book reads like an adventure story, but it factors in that there are a lot of areas that kids might be compelled to learn about in addition to that narrative. Sections on “Buddhism in Thailand” and “Human Responses to Levels of Oxygen Concentration” add interesting color to the rest of the story.
This book would have made more of an impression on me if I hadn’t read it right after John Rocco’s How We Got to the Moon, which is a masterpiece. That being said, any elementary or middle school library would do well to purchase this. It is a great conduit to teaching kids about religion, the human body, diving, rescues, soccer and any number of other interesting topics in a slick, smart package.
No comments:
Post a Comment