At Gleason's Gym

What A.J. Liebling's "The Sweet Science does for adult boxing, 's "At Gleason's Gym does for kids'. THis is an extraordinarily well-written and illustrated books that focuses developing boxing skills (or any skills, for that matter) than beating your opponent, although competition is part of boxing and part of the book. It's also about the "environment" at the renowned Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, "just a left hook away from the Brooklyn Bridge," where Ali and Jake "Raging Bull" LaMotta once trained. It smells of sweat born of hard work, and its sounds emanate from junp-roping, speed-boxing, punching the big-bag, and sparring or wrestling in one of the seven rings. It's not drawn quite as dingily as described, although one can see decades' worth of wear and tear on the old painted walls. The prose is as muscular and colorful as its subject, but suffused with an almost tender description of the protagonist, "Sugar Boy" and his trainer father. While "the noise and smell of sweat hit you in the face like a roundhouse right," we've also got the father talking about school with his young boxing prodigy, and quietly saying--mantra-like--"a good brain in a good body. There's lots of action, for Sugar Boy is training for the State, and possibly, the National Championships: "They break, and Sugar Boy drops his hands, dances sideways, chews on his mouthpiece, pushes his headgear back with both gloves, and lets rip with a terrific combination." Later, Sugar Boy "yells out rhrough his mouthpiece to nobody in particular, 'THIS IS FUN!'" Although Sugar Boy is one of the top fighters in his age bracket, the regulars at Gleason's Gym are as diverse as the City itself: Men and women of different ages, races, ethnicities, skill levels, and interests are shown training and sparring. But what really distinguishes "At Gleason's Gym" are Lewin's rich watercolors! There's so much texture and saturation they almost resemble acrylics. Lewin is a superlative artist, capturing atmosphere, movement, emotion, and light in exquisite 1 and 2-page spreads (along with 1 3/4 pagers, with a colum of text running along-side. Lewin has enormous talent, and both pictures and text are colorful and tone-perfect. Four pages are devoted to graphite sketches of boxing moves, there's a very helpful glossary, and a surprise conclusion: A picture of "Sugar Boy" Younan posing with his championship belt received for winning the National Silver Gloves Championship in 2006! A winner of a book, for art and boxing fans approximately 4 to 9 years old.