About the Book
This non-fiction book for children aged 9-12 years tells the story of Serena Williams: tennis player, sports icon, champion.
A Life Story: This gripping series throws the reader directly into the lives of modern society’s most influential figures. The book includes a number of black-and-white illustration along with timelines and fun facts. It is written by Sarah Shepherd.
Also in the series by Scholastic are:
Katherine Johnson: A Life Story, Stephen Hawking: A Life Story, Alan Turing: A Life Story, Rosalind Franklin: A Life Story and David Attenborough: A Life Story.

Book Review
When I first saw the book I thought, "this isn’t normally the type of book I would pick up"
When I first saw the book I thought, this isn’t normally the type of book I would pick up. I wrongly assumed that it would be boring and not very interesting!
I had never heard of Serena Williams before, but after asking my Dad about her and him saying what a good tennis player she and her sister are, I thought I might like to read the book after all.
After I started to read the book I got more and more interested in what would happen next and found that I didn’t want to put the book down.
The parts I really enjoyed was when Serena beat Venus for the first time and how Serena got better and stronger and never giving up on herself, but I admit I lost interest in the middle when Serena started getting injured a lot.
I also liked the little bits in the book that would explain about the game of tennis, that helped me as I don’t play tennis myself.
I didn’t really like the drawings and I think that photos would have been a better choice. Also, the way that the names of the players were written made it really hard for me to read and that slowed me down.
Overall I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, even if they have no interest in sport.
I give this book 8 ½ / 10 rating .
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Reviewer Profile

- Name: Marsden
- Age: 9 years
- Likes: computer games, reading, riding my bike
- Dislikes: mis-matching clothes and minced beef
- Favourite Book: Danny Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
- Favourite Song: BTS Dynamite
- Favourite Film: Marvel End Games