Celebrate the Spirit “commemorates the 100th anniversary of the world’s greatest sports spectacle.” The introduction proclaims that the Olympic spirit “creates a worldwide Olympic family whose members come together in peace, to compete and to share their friendship and their way of life.” Although sentimental and naive, this view will still probably wash with the 7 to 12-year-old intended audience. Thus it’s surprising that only a few pages later, when explaining that the disintegration of the ancient Games was a result of cheating and athletes competing “for bigger amounts of money,” the authors make the comparison to the modern Olympics by wryly commenting: “sound familiar?” The jaded juxtaposition invades the original sentiment.

After the introduction, the book presents parallel stories about two young boys named Jason. Jason Now is getting ready to run a 10km race. Jason Then is getting ready to run on the plains of ancient Olympia. Jason Now visits ancient Olympia. Jason Then walks around ancient Olympia. I kept expecting something vaguely Olympic to happen to either of our Jasons but nothing ever did. Instead of serving as a segue for the rest of the book, the Jason stories are disjointed and confusing. They neither celebrate the spirit nor make much sense. Which is surprising, considering the rest of Celebrate the Spirit is an excellent Olympic primer. From sections explaining the traditions of the Games, to the different events that athletes participate in, Dheensaw and Binder’s presentation is straightforward and comprehensible. By peppering the book with interesting sidebars (including one on the rejuvenation of the Olympics by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, and another on Stella Walsh, a man who competed as a woman) and well-placed photographs, the layout is visually appealing and easily digestible. Aside from the odd factual error (stating that the 3000m is a middle distance track-and-field event, including weightlifting in the section on combatives – sandwiched between Tae Kwon-Do and wrestling), Celebrate the Spirit is a valuable research tool for young readers doing a school project or simply interested in learning a little more about the Olympics.