This master's thesis is based on the list of youth literature with sports themes published between 2000 and 2020. The list has been designed with the help of yearly Manuals for reading quality youth literature, Cobiss Platform and the selection of children and young adult literature as well as scientific literature concerning sports and activities, made under the patronage of Cultural Bazaar, a national cross-sectoral project aimed at promoting arts and cultural education. The thesis shows the production of youth literature with sports themes, also presenting an overview of the target audience. Based on the theory about genres of youth literature, I concluded that sports themes are present mainly in realistic literature, e.g. short stories, picture books and young adult novels. Approximatelly ten works of literature with sports themes are created annually, mostly targeting primary school audience. Every year few new popular science books about sports emerge on the bookshelves too. Majority of these books are translated. The most prolific Slovene author of this genre and category is Primož Suhodolčan.In the literature mentioned above, various sports are presented, with football leading the way. The purpose of reading books with sports themes is diverse, ranging from relaxation to learning and encouragement for becoming physically active. I wanted to focus on how essential reading and physical activity are and how much in common they have, especially in the preschool and school periods. That is why it is so crucial creating a stimulating environment for children, pupils and students. In the empirical part of the thesis, I presented the attitude of student-athletes towards reading sports literature and their view on the similarities between reading and physical activity. I found out that pupils rarely read fiction. Although sport has an integral part in their lives, they do not read sports literature very often. Most information about sports, athletes and competitions they get from the internet. It is also not very often that teachers would incorporate sports literature into the curriculum, although pupils expressed affinity towards it. The relationship between reading and physical activity was also recognized among students themselves. They understand the link and view the reading as one option for preparing for training but they usually skip it. But when they have time, they most often read biographies of famous athletes that have a positive and motivational impact.
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