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Learn about your Olympic heroes through books

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If the Olympic Games have enchanted your children over the last week, they may want to do little else than sit glued to the television. But hope is just around the corner - the Olympics are almost over! Why not use their interest in the lives of these athletes to get more reading in just before school starts up? Biographies give your children role models and windows into other people's lives.

“Carly Patterson: Be Strong” by Carly Patterson with Clint Kelly is the life story of the American girl who won a gymnastics gold medal in 2004. This book is full of intimate photos and brings the star down to earth level. Children can easily identify with Carly.

You can have a tumbling time with your children at a local gym or even in the living room. Helping your child to do a forward roll on a mat is a good first beginning.

There are several biographies available about Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in track and field events in 1936. The one I like best is “Jesse Owens” from the On My Own Biography series, written by Jane Sutcliffe. The illustrations by Janice Lee Porter are unusually beautiful in their depictions of Owens and the other athletes. This is an easy reader about an American hero.

Another great American Olympic champion is Jim Thorpe. “Jim Thorpe Olympic Champion” doesn't go into the controversy over his Olympic medals, but is a fun-to-read biography with interesting stories from Thorpe's childhood. It is written by Guernsey Van Riper Jr., with illustrations by Gray Morrow.

You can put on your own Olympic Games complete with banners, a beginning ceremony and your own family events. Have a relay race passing a plastic bowl of ice water from runner to runner. The team with the most ice water still in the bowl at the end of the race wins. Have a mop race across the kitchen. Give two children a wet mop and a plastic lid. Let them race across the kitchen pushing their lid with the mop. The floor will be cleaner and you will have a great video clip to send to relatives or post on the Web. Don't forget to hand out home-made medals and have a party to celebrate.

To celebrate effort children will be inspired by “A Very Special Athlete” by Dale Bachman Flynn and illustrated by Emilio Soltero. This is a picture book biography of Adam Flynn, a Special Olympics champion who will win your heart. There is a picture of Adam holding his trophy on the last page.

Your children may want to attend the local Special Olympics after reading this book. You can visit www.sotx.org for information about local events. You and your children may want to volunteer.

The next time the summer games roll around your children will be four years older and mops may not hold the same appeal, so enjoy these special times with your champions.

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