We put together a reading list for kids & adults so the whole family can get pumped for the Olympic Games together!
Explore our all ages book (and movie!) recommendations ⬇️
Non-fiction
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
Total Olympics: Every Obscure, Hilarious, Dramatic, and Inspiring Tale worth Knowing by Jeremy Fuchs
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice: The Untold Story of 18 African Americans who Defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Deborah Riley Draper and Travis Thrasher
Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics by Jules Boykoff
Grace, Gold & Glory: My Leap of Faith by Gabrielle Douglas with Michelle Burford
Fire on the Track: Betty Robinson and the Triumph of the Early Olympic Women by Roseanne Montillo
Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother’s murder, John du Pont’s Madness, and the Quest for Olympic Gold by Mark Schultz, with David Thomas
Splash!: 10,000 Years of Swimming by Howard Means
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures edited by American Ferrera with E. Cayce Dumont (for essays from Michelle Kwan & Laurie Hernandez)
Fiction
The Rat Catchers’ Olympics by Colin Cotterill
The Happiest Girl in the World: A Novel by Alena Dillon
The Resisters: A Novel by Gish Jen
Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri; translated by Morgan Giles
Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team by Elise Hooper
Graphic Novels
Geronimo Stilton Saves the Olympics by Geronimo Stilton
Non-Fiction
Black Power Salute: How a Photograph Captured a Political Protest by Danielle Smith-Llera
G is for Gold Medal: An Olympics Alphabet by Brad Herzog
How to Train with a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals by Michael Phelps
Jesse Owens by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
Olympic Gold 1936: How the Image of Jesse Owens Crushed Hitler’s Evil Myth by Michael Burgan
Olympics by Chris Oxlade
Olympics: A Global History, From Ancient Olympia to the Present Day by Richard Platt
A Passion for Victory: The Story of the Olympics in Ancient and Early Modern Times by Benson Bobrick
Touch the Sky: Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumper by Ann Malaspina
What are the Summer Olympics? by Gail Herman
The Wildest Race Ever: Story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon by Meghan McCarthy
Fiction
The Gold Medal Mess by David A. Kelly
Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne
Olympig! by Victoria Jamieson
The Pickle-Chiffon Pie Olympics by Roger Bradfield
Non-Fiction
Games of Deception: The True Story of the First U.S. Olympic Basketball Team at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany by Andrew Maraniss
Fiction
Every Reason We Shouldn’t by Sara Fujimura
Rush for the Gold: Mystery at the Olympics by John Feinstein
Tumbling by Caela Carter
MPAA Rating: PG
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA Rating: R