Diary of a Track and Field Titan

Diary of a... #5

by Shamini Flint

Marcus is a maths whiz who is not good at sport. His dad is a self-help author who thinks Marcus can achieve anything he sets his mind to...with hilarious results. In illustrated diary format, Marcus's gentle, satiric humour and comic drawings will have readers laughing out loud while learning a surprising amount about sport.

Genres: Childrens

110 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Shamini Flint lives in Singapore with her husband and two children. She began her career in law in Malaysia and also worked at an international law firm in Singapore. She travelled extensively around Asia for her work, before resigning to be a stay-at-home mum, writer, part-time lecturer and environmental activist, all in an effort to make up for her 'evil' past as a corporate lawyer!

Shamini writes children's books with cultural and environmental themes including Jungle Blues and Turtle takes a Trip as well as the 'Sasha' series of children's books. She also writes crime fiction featuring the rotund Singaporean policeman, Inspector Singh. Singh travels around Asia stumbling over corpses and sampling the food ...

Reviews

[Prabhjot Kaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcus is back at trying his hand at sports on his dad's insistence. He has tried soccer, cricket, rugby and taekwondo in the past but he didn't make it. Marcus doesn't enjoy sports, he only likes Maths and computer games but his dad thinks that he just hasn't found the right sport for him to be good at and enjoy.

This time Marcus is starting Track. He's not so good at it. Marcus' cousin Spencer comes over to live with them for a bit. Spencer also joins the team and he turns out to be quite the star. Spencer is also good at other things. He helps everyone in Marcus' family with different things and everyone starts to like him and this doesn't sit well with Marcus. Marcus challenges him to a computer game off and Spencer beats him at that. When Marcus tells his friends that, Tank comes up with an idea.

Meanwhile, a rival coach challenges Marcus' Track coach for a competition. Tank's idea is in practice and Spencer ends up losing all the five events. Marcus feels bad for Spencer especially when he finds out that Spencer will be going to boarding school soon and he won't be able to spend Christmas with his family as both his parents are doctors and they'll be looking after sick children. Next day, Marcus is determined to right the wrongs but forgets to tell his friends not to sabotage with the events this time so he ends up helping Spencer in his own way. The competitions ends in a tie and everyone is happy except for Marcus as his dad has another sport lined up for Marcus to try.

I liked this better than the last two books in the series. I liked the addition of Spencer's character. I also liked how Marcus' friends are there for him and most of all I liked that his dad finally said that they just haven't found the right sport for him. Now I am actually looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

4 stars

[Yassine]

it was funny because harry was really hot and the coach said to go home ha ha

[MsEleanorMae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fnny.