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Eric Walters
This is an adventure about a grandson’s attempt to honour his grandfather while climbing Kilimanjaro. The journey challenges DJ’s belief that talent and determination will make everything easy.
Kathryn Gibbs Davis
Consider it for a child curious about inventions or the history behind familiar attractions; its biographical focus offers a person-centred entry into engineering.
Meish Goldish
This is a career-focused biography, moving between Olympic milestones and Phelps’s early experiences. Its emphasis is on persistence and achievement rather than a broad account of his life.
Susan Goldman Rubin
A portrait of Chanel’s rise in fashion sits alongside discussion of poverty, prejudice, self-invention and wartime controversy. The book offers achievements and faults together rather than presenting an uncomplicated style icon.
Michael Sandler
A focused sports profile of Michelle Kwan, linking competition, injury and disappointment with continued achievement. It offers a compact account of an athlete’s setbacks and successes, accompanied by high-action photographs.
Juan Felipe Herrera
A visually presented introduction to Hispanic and Latino American figures whose work spans culture, public life, science, sport and the arts. It offers short life sketches rather than one continuous narrative.
Russell Freedman
A lively introduction to Franklin’s changing roles, from printer and experimenter to civic organiser and statesman. It presents a broad historical journey supported by period images and reference material, with perseverance and inventive thinking prominent in the portrait.
Julia Finley Mosca
This offers an accessible introduction to a pioneering doctor and inventor, combining a poetic life story with scientific and historical detail. Its strongest appeal is the connection between personal ambition, medical discovery and wider questions of equality.
Matthew Syed
This is an encouraging, practical exploration of how practice, perseverance, support and learning from mistakes may help people develop skills. Its central message is hopeful, though the emphasis on becoming “awesome” can make achievement feel like the main measure of success.
Kate Pankhurst
A lively introduction to women’s contributions across history and different fields, presented through colourful illustrations, short profiles, facts and quotations. Its page-by-page structure supports dipping in, revisiting individual figures and noticing links between personal achievement and wider social change.
Simon Mugford
Choose this for a lively introduction to a prominent women’s footballer, especially if the reader enjoys football facts, cartoons, quizzes and stories about recovering from setbacks.
Simon Mugford
A lively, illustrated football biography follows Salah from childhood in Egypt through youth football, setbacks and European success. Quizzes, facts, jokes and commentary add activity alongside the biographical storytelling.
Ernest Hemingway
This is a concentrated story of an ageing fisherman’s prolonged struggle at sea. It offers quiet reflection, precise physical detail and a serious meditation on perseverance, pride, loss and what achievement means when results do not last.
Philip Pullman
This is a brisk, fantastical adventure about determination, danger and becoming a firework-maker. Lila’s journey combines perilous tests, a family predicament and a spectacular public performance, with illustrations contributing to the imagined world.
Chris Crutcher
A determined teenager builds an unconventional team around a shared goal, challenging the status attached to school sports. Expect group conflict, struggles over dignity and a story that treats the journey as potentially more important than recognition.
Gibbons, Alan
A football-centred story about ambition, exclusion and family support, alongside factual material about African football and celebrated players.
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