A review by villyidol
Ayrton Senna by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara

3.0

"If we want to change something, we need to start with the children."
- Ayrton Senna

Well, I’m glad to see my own childhood hero make it into this series, next to people like David Attenborough, Stephen Hawking, Nelson Mandela and other inspirational figures.

The Little People, BIG DREAMS series is written for very young readers, and I have to say for me it seems to be more about owning the books about the people I admire than about actually reading them. Or at least that’s the impression I’m getting from this, my actual first read.

It’s a cute book. But to say that this is only scratching the surface is almost a stretch. The lesson to be taken away here seems to be to work hard to achieve your goals and overcome your weaknesses and to still be compassionate even in a tense environment. To illustrate this the book uses the incident during practice for the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix, where Senna saved Erik Comas’ life, at least by Comas’ own account. Although it didn’t quite happen the way it is depicted here.







But it is a children’s book, so I guess that’s fine. Other stories, especially from Senna’s childhood, I’m not sure they happened at all. And even if they did, why include a story where little Ayrton is brought home by the police after he had taken his father’s car and driven it on the road? Even if he had actually done this, which I doubt, it’s certainly not a good example for children.

This book feels like a missed opportunity. Why not include his other dream, besides being Formula 1 world champion, that of helping children to fulfill their own dreams in life, by giving them the chance to have a proper education? The Instituto Ayrton Senna is his legacy. The gift to his country and its children, which he loved so dearly. It seems like an obvious choice for this book. Maybe it would have necessitated to deal with his fatal accident, because of the timing of it all. But maybe one could find a way to circumnavigate this in such a way to make it appropriate for young children? Well, it gets mentioned in the afterword, so there’s that. But I feel like there was potential to make this a great book instead of an okay one.

I’m still glad this book exists.

And every time the engines roar at the circuit and a new race is about to start, the crowds remember little Ayrton. The bold, bright kid loved by millions and missed by all, the greatest driver of all time.