The Heart of the Storm by Sharon Mentyka and Ellen Rooney - ADVISABLE

 The Heart of the Storm by Sharon Mentyka, illustrated by Ellen Rooney. NON FICTION PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHY. Little Bigfoot (Sasquatch Books), 2022. $19. 9781632172884

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS, HS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Sue Bird an active fun loving girl who loves to run, jump, and climb all over everything. As she grows she finds that she is naturally gifted at almost any sport she tries. She also discovers a gift that she can see or hear something once and repeat it verbatim. Basketball ends up being her favorite. She is a natural leader on and off the court helping her teammates to stay focused and win. She excels in high school and college basketball and pushes herself to excellence. She achieves her dream and is drafted in the WNBA as well as competing in many Olympic games. This story reminds us that hard things create winners and leaders. I highly recommend this book.

Mentyka writes extremely well. She does a beautiful job of keeping things concise for a picture book and yet give wonderful details to expand on the story. However, the illustrations felt a little off to me. It's like the people were anatomically off just a little bit. The people almost seemed to be floating on the page instead of on the background. As a motivational story, though, it is great for elementary up to high school. I loved reading this charming story.

Emilee-Librarian