It’s not too soon to begin rounding up books about the Olympics for your kids. Learn all about the history of the Olympic games and what the Olympics are like today from this Gold Medal Book List!
I have loved watching the Olympics ever since I was a little girl. I love how once every four years I become highly (and potentially irrationally) invested in water polo, beach volleyball, and other slightly-random athletic events.
I especially love the stories behind the competitors. It is always meaningful to see men and women from all over the world come together and share in this tradition together.
Is it any wonder, then, that I’m already looking forward to the Olympic games this winter?
Be sure to bookmark this page so you can get ahead of all the other homeschool moms putting Olympic Game books on hold at the library later this month.
Not that it’s a race or anything. Ahem. (But I will say that only 1 person gets a gold medal…) 😉
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Olympics Books for Kids
The Ancient Olympics
- The First Marathon: The Legend of Pheidippides, Susan Reynolds
- Hour of the Olympics, Mary Pope Osborne
- Ancient Greece and the Olympics, Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce
{If this inspires a deep-dive into studying Ancient Greece, be sure to checkout my Textbook-Free Ancient Greece history post!}
Olympics Then and Now
- The Story of the Olympics, The Olympics Museum
- The Wildest Race Ever: The Story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon, Meghan McCarthy
- Long-Armed Ludy and the First Women’s Olympics, Jean S. Patrick
- Queen of the Track: Alice Coachman, Olympic High-Jump Champion, Heather Lang
- Swifter, Higher, Stronger: a Photographic History of The Summer Olympics, Sue Macy
- What Are the Summer Olympics?, Gail Herman
- Great Moments in the Summer Olympics, Matt Christopher
- Freeze Frame: a Photographic History of the Winter Olympics, Sue Macy
- The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown
- G is for Gold Medal, Brad Herzog
Books about Sports:
- Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win, Rachel Ignotofsky
- Lives of the Athletes: Thrills, Spills, (and What the Neighbors Thought), Kathleen Krull
- Good Sports: Rhymes about running, jumping, throwing, and more, Jack Prelutsky
Books and Activities about the Olympics
Want to learn more about this summer’s host nation, Japan? Check out these books about Japan for children and explore the lyrical tradition of Haiku.
