Sakamoto’s Swim Club: How a Teacher Led an Unlikely Team to Victory

Abery (The Old Man and the Penguin: A True Story of True Friendship www.cmreviews.ca/node/1857) and Sasaki (Paper Son) have created a new picture book, one set in the 1930s, about how a dedicated science teacher helped a group of migrant children reach Olympic sized dreams by turning the sugar plantation irrigation ditches surrounding the buildings in which their parents worked into swim meet training grounds. While teaching in Maui, Sakamoto decided to mentor children from the community so they could get a chance to travel and represent their heritage in swimming competitions around the world. After a three-year training schedule that incorporated a daily regime of the teacher's own blend of science with resistance and strength training, goals were reached by both these Hawaiian swimmers of the Three-Year Swim Club and their coach.

The Photoshop illustrations show the beautiful vegetation surrounding the sugar plants. The citizens show pride for their home as they wear bright flowered shirts, leis, and play ukuleles. The journey from swimming ditches to swimming pools takes place over a few years, ending with a two-page author's note which includes a black and white photograph of the real people in the story and additional details about the time leading up to the races. Told in rhyming verse, this story is a fascinating piece of history about how business, educators, and children worked together to help one another succeed in using the resources and talents around them to achieve positive goals for each other and their country.