Flying High: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles (Who Did It First?)

The creative team behind Brave Ballerina relays the early struggles, diligent training, and eventual successes of record-breaking Olympic gymnast Simone Biles in this movement-filled picture book biography. Employing rhyming text (“Uplifted by love,/ pulled into the light,/ Simone rediscovers/ the magic of flight”), Meadows sketches Biles’s experiences with foster care and adoption, her entry into gymnastics, and continued resilience that carried her to the Olympic Games. Glenn’s art, rendered digitally, focuses on both motion and emotion: a spread of Biles’s signature move—“two breathtaking flips/ high up in the air”—shows each stage of the flip in flowing detail that celebrates both Biles’s expertise and the range of the human body. Back matter offers further biographical details, fun facts, and a select bibliography for further research. Ages 4–8. [em](Dec.) [/em]