The True Story of an American Team's Epic Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics

I believe, that this book should be compulsory reading for all high school students. It is not only well written, but has some very, very positive thoughts and is an excellent example of what a person can do if he is willing. I loved the original, have not read the teen version.
Liuda Avizonis

Future buyers need to be aware that Young Readers refers to young, English native-speaking, L1 readers who are children who know from 5,000 to 10,000 plus root words. This book is not a graded ELT/ELL reader with a range of 800 to 3,000 root words for children who are ESL or EFL students. I bought this book because I thought I could use it with my more advanced EFL students, but I do not think so after opening it up and looking through it. However, this is an amazing story, which stands on its own very well.

I gave this book four stars because the distinction I noted is not very clear. It's a great book, but if you're looking for an ESL or EFL graded reader like a high level Oxford Bookworms book, this is probably not what you are looking for. If you do buy this book for that purpose, you could easily end up explaining it endlessly, or re-writing it to simplify it for your students.

As some other reviews have mentioned, this doesn't quite cover the entire screen but honestly it is off in millimeters. We ruined the first one by not getting the screen entirely clean but the second one went on perfectly. We didn't watch the video (husband said we didn't need to...) Screen is as responsive as usual. Very satisfied!

Summary: How did a state university rowing team composed of the sons of poor farmers and lumberjacks come together to beat not only the elite Ivy League teams, but every Olympic team at the 1936 Games in Berlin? Here’s the story, beginning with their first day of freshman year. For Joe Rantz, one of the team members, the story goes back even further, to his impoverished childhood and repeated abandonment by his father and stepmother. Left completely on his own at the age of 15, he had to overcome deep-seated fears to learn to trust his teammates and work together with the seven other boys in the boat. A timeline and a description of “the art of rowing” are included at the end. Grades 4-8.

Pros: Joe’s story is inspiring, as is the recounting of the gold-medal race, in which the U.S. team was given a disadvantageous placement by those hoping for a Nazi German victory, and had to row with one of their key members gravely ill. Sports fans will enjoy learning what it took for this ragtag team to become champions.

Cons: It would have been nice to get a little more background on some of Joe’s teammates.

This book is amazing. The writing is excellent. For the description of Nazi Germany alone one should read this book. The description of the Olympic Race is just like one was there. The characters are so well drawn you learn to hate and love them --depending on who they are. I cannot laud this book enough

The struggle and triumph of the men from the University of Washington’s crew takes you into another time, another era of this country. Strength, perseverance and teamwork were more than words and you see this throughout the book. You become a part of the struggle of Joe’s life and a fan of rowing as you get deeper into the book. And at the end, you feel the triumph and pride of of representing themselves, their school and their country.

I listened to this book rather than reading it on the recommendation of my son (an auditory learner). I used it during my morning walks which by default became longer and longer as I did not want to turn the story off. The narrator captures the intensity and passion of the training; the lost times of the depression and challenges our parents and grandparents faced in those desperate times. Finally the duality of the Nazi German propaganda machine was well characterized as the journey to the Olympics unfolded under the guise of Hitlers machine. But most importantly the story of unified teamwork where the whole is so much more than the individual effort is constructed through the eyes of one young man struggling to belong to something meaningful. Well told; exciting, and worth every moment spent listening to it or reading it if you like to hold the paper--but you will miss the great story telling. All of that in the context that the outcome was known from the beginning.

A formidable part of history recounted in the purest, page-turning prose. This book would make a great campus and community read. The intimacy of the human spirit, the rawness of history, the making of a World Class team against all odds. I could not put this book down.