With his record-breaking eight gold medals won for swimming in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Phelps became an international sensation. In this picture book, Phelps explains the mind-boggling statistics of his years of training in terms young kids can understand. Full color.

What Kind of Book is How to Train with a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals

Topics

hard work sports and recreation the Olympics America water sports swimming boys and men goal setting record-breaking achievements athletes sports training perseverance

Genres

(auto)biography nonfiction

Reviews

Marmee

5.25

I picked this book up with really low expectations but actually thought it was pretty great! Was it one I would read over and over and over again? Probably not, but it does a FANTASTIC job of emphasizing hard work (rather than "talent") in achieving our goals, using Michael Phelps as an example. All of the different comparisons to put things in perspective were incredibly fun and kid-friendly and make this surprisingly entertaining!

Book Lists That Include This Book

Books about the Olympics

Books about sports and recreation

Books about hard work

The Creatives Behind the Book

Author

Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps is an American swimmer. He holds the record for winning the most gold medals (8) in a single Olympics (2008). He has won 16 Olympic medals, 14 gold and two bronze. He holds seven world records and has over 20 World Championship medals. After returning home from Beijing in 2008, Michael used the well-publicized $1 million dollar Speedo bonus to start the Michael Phelps Foundation through which he hopes to encourage children to lead healthy, active lives, and to continue to grow the sport of swimming. He now resides in Baltimore, MD with his dog Herman.

Author

Alan Abrahamson

Alan Abrahamson is an award-winning sportswriter and a recognized authority on the Olympics. In 2006, he left the Los Angeles Times, where he had been a staff writer for 17 years, to write for the NBC suite of online properties, which now includes NBCOlympics.com, NBCSports.com and UniversalSports.com. Since 2003, Alan has also served as a sports and Olympic analyst on NBC’s television networks. Among other honors, Alan won the 2002 National Headliner Award for sports writing and was named the Los Angeles Press Club’s 2004 sports journalist of the year. Alan and his wife, Laura, and their three children live in Southern California.

Illustrator

Ward Jenkins

WARD JENKINS draws and animates from his home in Atlanta, GA, where he lives with his photographer/writer wife,Andrea, and two kids, Ava and Ezra.He has illustrated many books for children, including How to Train a T. Rex &amp;amp; Win 8 Gold Medalsby Michael Phelps &amp;amp; Alan Abramson (Simon &amp;amp; Schuster), Chicks Run Wildby Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen (Simon &amp;amp; Schuster), and the Good Crooksseries by Mary Amato (Egmont USA).