January 9, 2024

A collection of seven stories of athletes who competed on the first Refugee Team at the 2016 Olympics, written to tie in with the then-upcoming then-2020 Tokyo Olympics. Some of the stories were pretty interesting (they start off strong with Yusra Mardini, who famously helped push her refugee boat through the sea), but there were a couple that didn't have as much meat on them that I think could have been cut if they couldn't find more to say. As one might expect, it also portrays a very idyllic view of the Olympics.

Because it is written for children, the book has full furigana, some words simplified into hiragana, and mostly fairly simple vocabulary, with no advanced grammar. There is also a lot of repetition of both vocabulary and ideas, especially when they have the athletes reflect on what sports mean/what being on the refugee team meant to them. Some of them do have more interesting things to say (a couple of them were able to reconnect with family due to the media attention), but there's a lot of 'we want refugees to be seen as people, we need to give refugee kids hope, we can connect to people through sports, we want peace, we're so happy to be representing refugees at the Olympics' phrased a lot of different ways. Each person's story is also broken up into multiple sections, making it easy to pick up and put down, and there are some illustrations and photos to break up the text.

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Mizuki graded
on January 9, 2024
Mizuki graded
on January 9, 2024
Mizuki graded
on January 9, 2024
easier thanあめのちはれ 1L24
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on January 9, 2024
Mizuki graded
on January 9, 2024
easier than昴 1L24
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on January 8, 2024
easier than蝶のように vol.1L23
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on January 8, 2024
Mizuki graded
on January 8, 2024
Mizuki graded
on January 8, 2024
harder thanルックバックL20
Mizuki graded
on January 8, 2024