Hey, this summer is all about SPORT. Yup, I’m getting into the Olympics in a REALLY Big way ‘cos we’ve got six weeks off and I don’t want to miss a thing! I’ve already been through my cupboard looking for all my sports stuff and I’ve managed to dig out …er…..erm…. a tennis racquet with no strings, a  basketball vest that fitted perfectly three years ago, an old note from my mum excusing me from PE when I had that tummy bug (ugh!), three blunt darts, my favourite swimming shorts (with the cord stuck inside the waist bit, you know…so annoying), my cracked body board and a frisbee containing my marmalade sandwiches from last month…yuk, I thought maramalade was orange! Looks like I’ve got some work to do to get ready then! I used to be able to run between trees faster than anyone…with a quick break at my favourite ones!
Not only do we have all those games from China – come on, Great Britain, win a few medals this time – but I can play with my mates and I just want to get out of the house and run, swim, kick a ball around and …well, be a little bit of a nuisance (so my mum says). Anyway here are some cool facts...

The Olympic flag has flown at the Games since 1920.  It was designed to include at least one colour in the flag of every country.  

The Beijing Summer Olympics open on the 8^th August, approximately 10,500 athletes will compete across 28 sports. There will be 302 events (165 men’s events, 127 women’s events and 10 mixed events).

The Paralympic Summer games open on the 6^th September, when disabled athletes will compete across 20 sports.

The first Paralympic games was held in 1948.  The name ‘Paralympics’ comes from the words ‘Parallel’ and ‘Olympics’.

The Official Olympic Flag was created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914.

The Olympic flame is a practice continued from the ancient Olympic Games. In Olympia (Greece), a flame was ignited by the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games. The flame first appeared in the modern Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The flame itself represents a number of things, including purity and the endeavour for perfection.

The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912.

Women were first allowed to participate in 1900 at the second modern Olympic Games.

The origin of the Latin word for book, liber, comes from the Romans who used the thin layer found between the bark and the wood (the liber) before the times of parchment. The English word comes from the Danish word for book, bog, meaning birch tree, as the early people of Denmark wrote on birch bark.

A rare first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll raised $1.5m at auction in New York, making this the most valuable children's book ever sold.

Best selling author of all time - this accolade goes to Agatha Christie, detective story authoress. Since 1920 her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 45 foreign languages. She is outsold only by the Bible and William Shakespeare.

The Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA contains 28 million books and has 532 miles of shelving.
If you were driving at a constant 70 mph in a car it would take you just under 8 hours to pass them all. And that's without stopping to go to the toilet!

The British Library in London is the 2nd biggest with 18 million books.