Capoeira: Game! Dance! Martial Art!

Choices, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

A photo-essay about the history and practice of Capoeira, a centuries-old Brazilian martial art incorporating traditional movements and rhythmic music, that is popular today as an energetic game played throughout the United States and around the world.

CAPOEIRA -- it's a game, a dance, a martial art! It's a way of expressing oneself through movement and music. With action-packed photographs and accessible text, readers are introduced to this exciting, popular game.

At Madinga Academy in Oakland, California, a group of girls and boys practice the acrobatic moves of capoeira. Then they begin to play games to the infectious, rhythmic beat of traditional music and singing.

On to Brazil to experience capoeira in its historic birthplace, where it dates back four hundred years. Capoeira developed as a way of fighting among enslaved Africans, was outlawed the the government, and was permitted once again in 1930 as a martial art and game.

Back in Oakland, at an end-of-year ceremony, students receive their colored ropes indicating their levels of accomplishment. They also look forward to next year, and the fun of expressing themselves through the game, dance and martial art of capoeira.

George Ancona is an award-winning author and photographer known for his vivid, eye-catching images. He has written and/over photographed more than one hundred books for young readers. In 2002 Ancona received the Washington Post Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award for his work providing quality nonfiction for young readers. Ancona and his wife live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can find him online at georgeancona.com.

George Ancona is an award-winning author and photographer known for his vivid, eye-catching images. He has written and/over photographed more than one hundred books for young readers. In 2002 Ancona received the Washington Post Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award for his work providing quality nonfiction for young readers. Ancona and his wife live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can find him online at georgeancona.com.