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Winter Olympics 2014—Let the Games Begin!

Speed skaters racing on the ice.
Speed skaters racing on the ice.

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, start on February 6! To help inaugurate this amazing international competition, the Bookshare Collections Development team has put together a wonderful list of books for all ages.

Do you want to know how and when the first games started? Do you want to learn more about specific events like hockey or skiing? Do you want to read about Winter Olympic athletes, like speed skater Apolo Ohno?

Get ready for the winter games with these great books, add them to your Reading List, and share with others!

Books for Children and Adolescents

Tacky and the Winter Games (grades PreK-1)

Tacky the penguin wants to compete in EVERY winter sport. Will his friends and teammates survive his enthusiasm?

Winter Olympics: A True Book (grades 3-6)

An excellent history of over 100 years of winter sports in the Olympics.

Snowboard Duel (grades 4-6)

The new snowboard team is “boys only”—that leaves Brian’s best friend Hannah out in the cold!

Ice Dreams (grades 4-8)

Maya’s family wants her to carry on her mother’s Olympic dreams in figure skating—how will she tell them that it’s hockey that’s her real love?

White Gates  (grades 5-7)

Is there really a curse on Snow Park’s snowboarding team? Will Tor and his friends unravel the mystery before more are hurt?

Gold Medal Winter (grades 6-8)

Esperanza’s dream of competing for gold in figure skating is turning into a nightmare of distractions and challenges!

Catching Air! The Wild World of Snowboarding (grades 6-8)

Experts at Sports Illustrated give you a fascinating inside glimpse of this world of high stakes and action and the athletes who make it their own.

Slalom (grades 7-9)

Sandro Birch is a born skier—but will the return of his long-absent father help or harm his dreams of greatness on the slopes?

The Finnish Line (grades 8-10)

Ski jumper “Mo” Clark learns about more than just sports in her first time living and competing abroad.

Winter Olympics: An Insider’s Guide to the Legend, Lore and Events of the Games (grades 9-12)

Each chapter reviews a different competition—its history, legendary competitors, judging, and other fun facts that will put you in the know as you watch this year’s Games.

Where Countries Come to Play (grades 9-12)

An authoritative account of the tradition and dramas of Olympic ice hockey competition—including the legendary “Miracle on Ice” of 1980.

Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun (grades 9-12)

Inspiring and entertaining “as-told-to” biography of Bode Miller, from humble beginnings to international skiing fame.

Books for Older and Adult Readers

To the Edge and Back

Chris Klug’s amazing odyssey spans a career as an elite Olympic snowboarder and triumph as an organ transplant survivor.

Boys of Winter

An ice-level view of the young amateur American hockey team that electrified their country in 1980 with their “miracle on ice.”

Zero Regrets

Speed skater Apolo Ohno shares the lessons he learned over a lifetime of striving and competing for Olympic gold.

White Heat: The Extreme Skiing Life

Wayne Johnson takes us into the high-risk, high-thrills world of elite skiers, men and women who challenge the boundaries of nature and their own selves.

Ice Breaker

Rudy Galindo tells the story of his battles against poverty, prejudice, and personal tragedy to reach the heights of figure skating success.

The Second Mark

Behind-the-scenes story of the controversial 2002 Olympic pairs skating competition: the human dramas surrounding the event and the confession of a corrupt judge that led to the unprecedented awarding of a second gold medal.

Pretty Good for a Girl

Tina Basich was never interested in being “pretty good for a girl,” and she pushed the envelope for acceptance of women as legitimate snowboard competitors.

My Sergei

The fairytale romance of Russian figure skaters Sergei Grinkov and Katia Gordeeva was beautiful, public—and all too short.

Ice: Great Moments in the History of Hard, Cold Water

Where would winter sports be without ice? Learn more about the slippery substance from a cultural historian in Minnesota (where they know a thing or two about life below freezing)!

 Special thanks to the Bookshare Collections Development department for this super list of accessible books.

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