Welcome to Litsy!

The story of Gertrude Ederle (Trudy) the first woman to swim the English Channel. A natural born swimmer, She loved the water. She was one of the first women to compete in the Olympics. She was certain she could swim across the Channel. With her second try she did it! Trudy suffered from loss of hearing in one ear and had lots of ear infections. She was shy and didn‘t like the limelight. The first chapters were slow, the rest were great. 4/5

I just started reading this. I hope it will be as good as its reviews. The prologue and first couple of chapters didn‘t grab my attention. I‘m finding it more interesting with each new chapter.

“It‘s been an honor, teaching you, Bree.“

You could base any writing prompts off this book. Maybe you have them compare it to a time that they felt anxious while doing something new or how they will be determined to be better at things.

Week 3: Graphia. this is such an inspiring book to read to children or have them read on their own. It dives into hard topics like anxiety, racism, family, dynamic, sports and friendships. It‘s a good reading level for many students.

😂Some of the team names in this book!
#middlegrademagic #summerofmiddlegrade

Holy cow another history that schooled me in this I never even wondered about but in all the best ways. Non-fiction unique histories continue to be a blast and I have zero plans of stopping anytime soon. So much respect for these athletes that I, myself, snickered at previously.

Waiting 6 months in publishing to get these most recent Olympics included in the book would have been even more amazing. Physical book = photographs and diagrams

Next up…… to bridge the void left by the Olympics!

Following up on the Olympics, I read this middle grade graphic novel about a Black girl who overcomes her family‘s historic discomfort with swimming/pools to compete on her middle school swim team. The story was good, and I liked the intergenerational friendships portrayed in the book, but I really didn‘t connect with the art style. And one plot point was so ridiculous it was distracting. It was hard to really enjoy the reading experience.

I finished this at the beginning of July, and with the Paris Olympics coming up, it was the perfect time to listen to this memoir from a legitimate swimming superstar. There weren't a lot of salacious details, because Katie Ledecky seems to lead a pretty normal life...other than that whole "shattering world records" thing. While obviously no one is perfect, she seems like a genuinely good person...it makes it so easy to root for her!