Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Estee Ackerman

by Ann D Koffsky (Author) Abigail Rajunov (Illustrator)

Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Estee Ackerman
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

POP POP KERPOW!
Eleven-year-old Ping-Pong phenom Estee Ackerman must make a difficult choice. When her championship match is scheduled on the Jewish Sabbath, will she go for the gold medal, or honor her faith? Read the true story of how a young girl struggled to uphold her beliefs while pursuing her passion.

Tournament after tournament, Estee kept winning.
She beat all sorts of players. Some were older. Some were younger.
She even beat tennis star Rafael Nadal!
She became one of the best Ping-Pong players in the United States.

Estee Ackerman loved Ping-Pong more than anything. But she also loved and honored the Jewish tradition of the Sabbath. At age eleven, she began to rise in the ranks of tournament players, making it all the way to the finals of the US National Table Tennis Championships. She only had one player left to beat to win a gold medal--but the final match was set during Shabbat, and the judges said they couldn't change it. How could Estee choose between her passion and her faith? This is the true story of a girl's struggle between her love for her religion and her love of the game.

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$18.99

Kirkus

A noteworthy tale of a young Jewish athlete taking a personal stand.

Publishers Weekly

For Estee Ackerman (b. 2002), "Shabbat was a day of calm," Koffsky writes, "a break from the exciting pop, pop, ker-pops" of the ping-pong tournaments she played during the week. Rajunov contrasts the intensity of competition--images of fierce concentration, bold motion lines, and onomatopoeia--with starry scenes of the athlete's family serenely gathered around the Shabbat table. At 11, Ackerman was on the brink of winning the U.S. National Table Tennis Championships when the finals were set for a Saturday and the officials refused to budge. Her decision to forfeit wasn't easy, but it captured the nation: "People everywhere read the articles. Most of them didn't play Ping-Pong. A lot of them weren't Jewish. But many of them were excited to hear about a young girl who had chosen her values over the gold medal." The book concludes with Ackerman winning gold the following year--on a Monday--and an afterword. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)

Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Ann D Koffsky
Ann Diament Koffsky is the author and/or illustrator of more than fifty books for kid, s including the Kayla and Kugel series, The Three Little Sheep, and Different Kinds of Minds with Temple Grandin. Shabbat is definitely her favorite day of the week. Occasionally, Ann enjoys picking up a paddle and playing pickleball . . . but she's nowhere near as good as Estee! Find out more at annkoffsky.com.

Abigail Rajunov is an illustrator based in Dallas, Texas. She loves to draw silly characters, whimsical scenes, and emotional moments. As someone who was raised Jewish, she is honored to help tell Estee's story for her debut picture book! When she isn't illustrating, Abigail loves to play video games, strum on her guitar, and plein air paint in her sketchbook. You can find more of her work at abigailrajunov.net
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781499816099
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Little Bee Books
Publication date
September 10, 2024
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF007100 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Sports & Recreation
JNF049110 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Religion | Judaism
JNF054120 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Sports & Recreation | Racket Sports
Library of Congress categories
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