Ole Könnecke has created a children’s Picture Book Dictionary of popular sports from around the world and all of them are Fantastic Fun!
Each double page spread is filled with a bevy of little cartoon animals busily playing athletics, basketball, golf, rugby, boxing, cycling and many more. Some weird sports are included like hay bale tossing, axe throwing, arm wrestling and stone lifting.
Giraffe, handsomely attired in a top hat, tailcoat and white gloves is a dressage rider. A rather unlikely trio of mountaineers, three crocodiles roped together, manage to reach a fantastically high mountaintop. The frogs have chosen a fishbowl, rather than the ocean, to practice different strokes and eat ice-cream. While elephant doesn’t even have to get his legs off the ground as he can use his trunk effectively for a slam dunk in a game of basketball.
Everything is fantastic, although that’s sometimes tongue in cheek. For instance one of the ski jumpers is having a ‘fantastic’ time falling headfirst into the snow. He needs more practice!
Three-year-olds will love looking at all the pictures, pointing out the different kinds of animals playing each game and create their own stories about what is happening. While older children will find the small blocks of text on each page about how each game should be played informative and enjoy the quirky comments such as on the one on the boxing page “Have you ever considered how lucky you are not to be a punching bag?”
Sports are Fantastic Fun is very amusing and it will also open children’s eyes to just how many different sports there are which they can choose from when they are older.
Sports are Fantastic Fun is by Ole Konnecke. Publisher Gecko Press. RRP $34.99
Reviews by Lyn Potter
Parent and grandparent, Avid traveler, writer & passionate home cook
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