Writer and editor
Published by Hyperion
This colorful, vibrant treasury is the ultimate tribute to the unique sport and pastime of double Dutch. Written and compiled by celebrated author and journalist Veronica Chambers, Double Dutch is filled with her own personal memories of girlhood and jumping rope, along with poems, interviews, songs, history, quotes, rhymes, and photographs. At the heart of Double Dutch, though, is a celebration, not just of a sport, but of sisterhood--after all, it takes a few friends to make that rope really swing and those feet jump for joy.
"A book that is as snappy and fresh as its subject. Chambers introduces readers to the world of jump roping through personal reminiscences, wonderful action photos, and factual narratives. The book looks like a vibrant collage; a clean typeface is interspersed with pictures and inserts of the rhymes themselves. From it, readers learn not only the history of double Dutch (jumping between two twirling ropes dates back to the ancient civilizations in Phoenicia, Egypt, and China) and its current state, but also experience some of the joy of jumping. Joanna Cole has compiled jump rhymes in Anna Banana (Morrow, 1989), but Chambers re-creates the vibrant context in which they live." -- School Library Journal