Book Review #14: "The Three-Year Swim Club"

Hey Everyone,
     Let me introduce this year's first book to make "my favorites list" on Goodreads.com,  it is "The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and their Quest for Olympic Glory'" by Julie Checkoway. Overall I would rate this book five stars out of five. Where do I begin? Wow, what an amazing story! This book is a true story of a group of Japanese-American children and their coach. It is a story of a coach a Japanese-American who was trying to find himself and found himself in a group of Japanese-American children. These children had nothing, they lived in poverty living as "slaves" on sugar plantations. The coach found a ditch and taught them how to swim. It is about the struggles during this fragile time period of World War II and particularly the struggles that of Japanese-Americans faced. It is a story of will, of never giving up. It is a story of strength and courage in the face of adversity.
     Before reading this book, honestly I did not know anything about it, and never mind not knowing that this story existed or happened in the first place. But boy, oh boy am I glad I read it. I am kicking myself in the butt that I didn't read this sooner, and wishing this book never ended. The way the author narrated this story was magical. Reading it, I felt as if I was there watching as a bystander the events that took place. I truly felt apart of this book and definitely connected to it from the first paragraphs. I almost want to go as far as to say that I wish they would make a movie out of this book. However, I am also weary of wishing for this, because hardly ever are the movies are as good as the book. And when this happens it leaves you disappointed, frustrated and upset, and I don't want to look back feeling this way. So as they say better safe than sorry. I would like to point out that for those people who shy away from reading nonfiction, I would highly consider reading this book. I would read it because of the way the author told the story. This is not your typical nonfiction book, you are going to be hooked from the very first word.
     I literally was holding my breath and sitting on the edge of my seat while reading this book. It was such an amazing story, I could not wait to turn the page to see what happened next. There are not too many books out there where it is difficult to find anything to critique. Reading this book took you on a journey of experiencing the full spectrum of emotions. And this book was a very pleasant change, since recently I have been reading books on the more depressing side. I would again highly recommend this book, for those of you who would like to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE.
 I would like to thank The Reading Room, Julie Checkoway, and Grand Central Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Until the next page,

Jill