Girls Play to Win Figure Skating [図書館]

Figure skating is a beautiful and graceful sport, but what many young people don't realize is that it is "very technical." Each routine, which is similar to an act in a play, is made up parts like "spins, jumps, and connecting elements." Skaters are very dedicated and when Kim Yu-na, a Korean champion, was a mere six-years-old she began training in earnest ... six days a week. In this book you'll read about "figure skating basics," the eight levels of proficiency, things you'll need in order to skate in competition, and you'll learn about spins, jumps, and connecting elements. Each of these moves is described in detail. For example, a loop is "An edge jump in which the skater takes off and lands using the same back outside edge."

Perhaps you remember the story of Hans Brinker and his silver skates. In the 1300s people were ice skating and "used ice skates for transportation in cold areas in northern Europe," including the Netherlands where he lived. In the eighteenth century rudimentary figure skating had begun with the formation of a skating club in Scotland. You'll read about Jackson Haines who introduced his brand of figure skating, including his sit-spin, to audiences in the United States. Another innovative skater, Florence "Madge" Syers, made lots of waves when she "signed up to skate" at the World Championships in 1902. Ladies simply were deemed too delicate for that sort of thing. You'll find out just what happened when she showed up in London.

Figure skating as a sport began to take off and in 1905 "the International Skating Union created the ladies' World Championships." You'll learn about women who participated in that competition as well as those who skated in the Olympics and the changes that occurred over the years. In this book you'll be treated to portraits of some of the greats including, Sonja Henie, Tenley Albright, Peggy Fleming, Katarina Witt, Debi Thomas, Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan, Kristi Yamaguchi, Midori Ito, Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski, and several other fascinating figure skating stars. In the 1990s scandal rocked the sport. If you have no inkling of something so heinous that would shock the world of skating, you will after you read this book!

This is a marvelous overview of the sport, complete with portraits of many great women who participated. I was not expecting such an intensely fascinating book. I was anticipating a book on the basics and was quite pleasantly surprised when I found not only an interesting historical overview, but also brief vignettes about some of the best the world has known. Some of the portraits are presented in sidebars, while others are more detailed in the main text. The photographs are plentiful and well chosen. In the back of the book is an index, a glossary and additional recommended book and web site resources. If you have a youngster who is a figure skating fan and would like to know more about the history and its participants, this is one book you should consider!

From reading the product review, I thought this would be more substantial and more in-depth. It is basically a children's book (perhaps for ages 8-9) and quite thin; I would normally expect to pay perhaps a third of the price. The high cost apparently has a lot to do with the "library binding", which I really did not need anyway, since i'm sure my daughter will outgrow the book in the next few months. It does a nice job exposing girls to some of the major figure skating stars and highlighting their achievements.