Review: Amazing Sports from Around the World - Douglas McLaughlin

Review: Amazing Sports from Around the World - Douglas McLaughlin - May 2022

As someone passionate about children's and young person literature, for the past couple of years, I have participated in what is called Multicultural Children's Book Day where a group of bloggers, reviewers, and readers from all over the world come together to read a book that represents a different culture or experience. Last year for me was a Native American tale and this year is a book from the publishing company "Language Lizard" titled Amazing Sports from Around the World. This book is a quick read and highlights a few of the different and unusual sports that are played around the world. The book is also available in a multitude of languages from Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, and of course English which I understand and read. This book features a mixture of sports I was aware of like Quidditch - made famous from the UK book series of Harry Potter to Capoeira - the Brazilian MMA that is also like dancing to Parkour and Free Climbing. To more unusual ones like Australia's Tuna Throw where they throw Tuna fish and Elephant Polo - basically, instead of riding horses, they ride Elephants. One that wasn't mentioned but seeing as I am from New Zealand and it is unusual and I believe it requires an honourary mention is the good ol' Gumboot Throw in Taihape. Created with the belief that the town threw gumboots when the Easter Bunny tried to come out of his burrow any time that wasn't Easter - or so I was told as a child growing up. This book is a great classroom resource to have especially if you are learning about different cultures or during the Olympics/Commonwealth games you might do a class project on Different sports in Different countries. For further learning, this book also comes with lesson plans and activities.  This book is easy to read and understand and perfect for ages between 7-10 years old.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vRsQbl