Sakamoto’s Swim Club: How a Teacher Led an Unlikely Team to Victory

“Run!/ Policeman’s on his beat/ Children scatter/ in the heat.” The children of Hawaiian sugar cane workers swim in irrigation ditches when it gets hot; a school science teacher, Soichi Sakamoto, says he’ll supervise the swimmers if the police leave them alone. He sets about forming them into a team and aims for the highest possible goal: the Olympics. The games are canceled due to WWII, but Coach Sakamoto gets to see one of his swimmers take a gold medal in 1948. Abery tells the story in tight, driving verse that doesn’t bog down in descriptions. Instead, Sasaki supplies detail in gracefully composed spreads: in one, a split view shows the children’s heads above the blue-green water and their bodies below it. Back matter supplies contextualizing information and photographs. Ages 5–8. (May)