The Fab Five: Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas, and the U.S. Women's Gymnastics Team

by Christine Dzidrums

Meet the five gymnasts who will represent the United States at the 2012 London Olympics. A children's biography, The Fab Five: Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas and the U.S. Women's Gymnastics Team tells each team member's life story as they rose from young gymnasts with big dreams to become international superstars of their sport. Discover the stories of Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Kyla Ross as they aim for gold in London!

Genres: Biography

128 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2012

About the author

A proud Angeleno, Christine Dzidrums was born raised and lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband, two sons and daughter. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts from California State University, Fullerton. She previously wrote the biographies: Joannie Rochette: Canadian Ice Princess,Yuna Kim: Ice Queen, Shawn Johnson: Gymnastics’ Golden Girl and Nastia Liukin: Ballerina of Gymnastics. Her first novel, Cutters Don’t Cry, won a 2010 Moonbeam Children’s Book Award in the Young Adult Fiction category. She also wrote the tween book, Fair Youth, and the beginning reader books, Timmy and the Baseball Birthday Party and Timmy Adopts a Girl Dog. Christine also authored the picture book, Princess Dessabelle Makes a Friend. She recently competed her second novel, Kaylee: The ‘What If ?’ Game.

Reviews

[Brooke Zeigler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great great book!! Definitely recommend! It’s a great way to learn a bit about each athlete.

[Alyssa]

A biography of the members of the 2012 Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team; each chapter profiles a different gymnast and her journey to become an Olympic athlete. The gymnasts themselves contribute quotes to the text to round out the information presented.

The book fits into the biography genre because the text specifically chronicles the lives of these athletes. It is also autobiographical when you consider the gymnasts contributions to the text.

The Fab Five is written for ages 9 and up, (3rd grade and older). Because each chapter focuses on a different person, students could use this book to create a report on a specific individual or write a summary about each individual. This book will appeal to a specific audience, mostly young girls, this book could be a great resource for a letter writing lesson; having the student write a fan letter to one of the gymnasts described in the book.

[Natalie Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had good information but I didn't feel like I got a good feel for the girls and their personalities or what their lives were like but just the basic facts of their lives. Very interesting though.

[Eileen V · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesomezzzz!!!!!!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really organized, gives fun facts behind the scene, not best.

[Leah Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book had a lot of very good information and was very informative.

[Brittany Reimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and a wonderful story on how these girls became olympians for team usa