Olympics! (Picture Puffins) - Softcover

B.G. Hennessy grew up in Wantagh on Long Island, NY. At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, she majored in fine art and learned how to design, print and bind handmade books. She also took courses in Children’s Literature. The combination of form and content in the picture book format fascinated her and after graduation she headed for NYC where she worked for 17 years in children’s book publishing as a designer and art director. She is the author of Road Builders and The First Night, as well as many books starring Corduroy, the loveable toy bear created by Don Freeman. She now lives with her family in Arizona.

A brief look at the modern Olympics. Hennessy (The First Night, 1993, etc.) describes the long preparations for the games (athletes practicing, workers building venues, manufacturers making sporting equipment, farmers growing ceremonial flowers) and the events themselves, most covered in lists that provide a sense of the variety of the efforts without being exhaustive. Before and after such lists is a text written in a crisp, elevated voice: ``In ancient Greece . . . the winners were the strongest, the fastest, and the bravest athletes of their time.'' In an entirely different key are the watercolor cartoons, as detailed as anything by Philippe Dupasquier and conveying a similar glee in visual asides for readers to find in repeat viewings. The gently mocking pictures depict sprawling scenes of a generic Olympic village and determined athletes with comic expressions on their faces. In general, Chesworth also musters the scale of the games: the simultaneity of events, the crushing organization required, and the mass of people involved as participants, spectators, and administrators. (Picture book/nonfiction. 3-8) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.