Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Estee Ackerman
by Ann D Koffsky (Author) Abigail Rajunov (Illustrator)
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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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.
JNF049110 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Religion | Judaism
JNF054120 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Sports & Recreation | Racket Sports
