READY, SET, RUN!

A celebration of the world’s largest annual race.

“It’s a BIG DEAL to run in the New York City Marathon,” Kimmelman burbles—going on to describe how runners from more than 100 countries stretch, add tunes to their playlists, put on their lucky socks, or otherwise prepare and then gather in the thousands at the Staten Island starting area to, at the blast of a cannon, “poundpoundpoundpoundpound…” their way over the 26.2 mile course to its finish in Central Park. Tongue firmly in cheek, Hartland portrays massed clumps and drawn-out strings of participants diverse of age, race, and body type, some using wheelchairs, some in costumes, streaming over bridges or up and down city streets past both the occasional inset fact box and spectators cheering them on with signs (“Keep Going!”; “Go César!”; “You are NOT almost there”; “This is a lot of work for a free banana”) and snacks. At the finish line, it’s leafy crowns for the winners but “medals for everyone!” and a slow, weary wind down. “What a city! What a day! What an amazing race!” It all goes by too fast for readers to feel as if they’ve actually run the course…but could well leave them ready to try, one day. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A fresh, buoyant high stepper.