Coy, John. For Extreme Sports- Crazy Boys Only. Feiwel and Friends, 2015. $15.99. ISBN 9781250049445. 155 pgs. Ages 7-12. P8Q7
I opened this book expecting not to like it- purely because of the title. Why for crazy BOYS only? Many women are involved in unusual or extreme sports, and some girls won’t pick this book up because of the off-putting title. Nevertheless, I found it fairly interesting by the end. The author took a long time to define extreme sports, to clarify how different they are from traditional sports, and to talk about the kinds of people who like extreme sports. Coy brings up the idea that many athletes are turned off by the focus on competition and winning, and the huge investment in time and money required traditional sports, and prefer to engage in sports that can be tailored to individual preferences. He also mentions the danger factor- many of these sports are very dangerous (though traditional sports can be too)- but athletes can learn to minimize the risks. The main part of the book looks at different kinds of extreme sports (everything from wingsuit flying to cave diving to snowmobiling to whitewater kayaking), X-games stars, and competitions. There is a table of contents and a bibliography; I think an index would be helpful in a book of this type.
January 2017 review by Carol Schramm.
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