A Very Young Gymnast

Rating:
Summary: Very Nostalgic!
Review: I got this book when I was 10 years old. Every once in a while I take it out again and look at it. While it may be "dated" in some sense such as going to see Nadia and Olga, and the equipment - note the WOODEN Balance Beam! :) It is still a good narrative of what a gymnast goes through. The fact that younger gymnasts may not know who Nadia and Olga are is quite amazing and perhaps this is a good read for those tikes who think that gymnastics started with Shannon Miller! :) A great read for older gymnasts looking back on the "good old days" and young gymnasts who never knew that there was anything but spring floors and padded beams.

Rating:
Summary: Very nice!
Review: This is a wonderful book about gymnastics. It has lots of pictures. It's about a 10 year old gymnast who has aspirations to be in the olympics. It shows how she trains. The pictures are in black & white. Not only does it contains pictures of her, but also other gymnasts are here also. Nadia, Bart Conner & Kurt Thomas and more.

First published in 1978, it's a little dated-but it shows gymnastics as it once was. Very nice!

Rating:
Summary: About a 10 year old girl and WRITTEN like a 10 year old girl
Review: This was an interesting book but it was not all that well written. It seemed like Jill Krementz wrote down Torrance's words without seeing how they would look on the page as opposed to how they sounded in conversations with her. I've read some of the other A Very Young.... books and have similar observations about the writing-- Ms. Krementz's talents must lie more in photography.