Jill Krementz published a series of books for children in the seventies, all beginning with the title A Very Young... The idea behind them is genius; find a child excelling in a sport/hobby and photograph their life.
As a child I pored over A very young dancer constantly. This book follows Stephanie, a ten year old dancer training at The School of American Ballet. She auditions for The Nutcracker, earning herself the role of Clara. The book follows her from auditions to the rehearsals to the show. I'm not sure why I loved this book so much. Maybe the fact that I did ballet, maybe the fact that the girl was ten, maybe because of the awesome black and white photography. Stephanie seemed so exotic and unique to me as a kid. My copy of the book is tattered, dog-eared, taped together, and still loved. It now resides in my parent's house.
I wasn't aware of A very young gymnast or A very young skater until I was a teenager. The gymnast chosen was Torrance York, who is now a famous photographer. She was also referenced in Jennifer Sey's book Chalked Up, an autobiography of her life as an elite athlete. Jennifer and Torrance competed against each other in the 1970's. Katharine Healy is the skater. All three girls (Katharine, Torrance, and Stephanie) resided in NYC.
I am now the proud owner of all three of these books. There are more in the series (young gardener, young horseback rider, young chef to name a few, none of which I've read).
My copies.
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