Jesse Owens: Fastest Man Alive

by Carole Boston Weatherford, Eric Velasquez (Illustrator)

Overview

In paperback for the first time, the compelling story of the famous Black Olympian who stood up to Hitler.

Jesse Owens grew up during the time of Jim Crow laws, but adversity didn't stop him. After setting world records for track in high school and college, he won a slot on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team. That year, the Olympics were held in Nazi Germany, where Adolf Hitler believes the Games would prove to the world that people like him were superior to all others. But Jesse, a sharecropper's son, would ultimately topple Hitler's hopes, winning four gold medals and the hearts of millions to become known as the fastest man alive.

The story of Jesse Owens comes alive for young readers with Carole Boston Weatherford's award-winning free verse poetry and Eric Velasquez's stunning art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781547608980
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	01/25/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,034,180
Product dimensions:	9.93(w) x 9.33(h) x 0.10(d)
Age Range:	7 - 11 Years

About the Author

Two-time NAACP Image Award winner Carole Boston Weatherford has authored many children's books, including the Newbery Honor winner Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom and the Caldecott Honor winners Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and Freedom in Congo Square. Among Carole's other books are I, Matthew Henson; Jesse Owens: Fastest Man Alive; and Be a King. She is a professor at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.
www.CBWeatherford.com.

Eric Velasquez won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award for The Piano Man. He is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts and lives in Hartsdale, New York.
www.ericvelasquez.com

Editorial Reviews

Written in second-person narration, the book focuses tightly on Owens's accomplishments, giving details about each of the four races and his role in uniting people across racial lines. Rich pastel illustrations, many of them based on historical photographs, make this title stand out.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“[A] poetic tribute...Sometimes calling to mind old-time photographs, Velasquez's pleasingly grainy pastels easily convey the movement and speed, determination and triumph at the core of Owens's uplifting story.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

From the Publisher

Weatherford (Moses) addresses her poetic tribute to Jesse Owens's remarkable performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics to the athlete himself: "Go from cotton fields to city sidewalks,/ from sickly child to keen competitor,/ from second-class citizen to first-place finish./ Go, Jesse, go. Trounce Jim Crow./ Run as fast as your feet can fly,/ as far as your dreams will reach." This allows the author to weave in subtle references and to make readers feel like privileged insiders (e.g., "find new track shoes/ to replace the ones you lost in New York"). The narrative follows Owens to Berlin, where Nazi flags line the streets, and beyond the city, to sobering images that Owens, and spectators of the Games, were "not meant to see"—the concentration camps. Hitler's presence casts a dark shadow over Owens's brilliance on the track ("Hitler does not want your kind here,/ does not believe you belong./ Prove him wrong"). After describing the fourth of the athlete's gold medal–clinching events, Weatherford asks, "Who'd have thought/ that a sharecropper's son,/ the grandson of slaves,/ would crush Hitler's pride?" In the tale's final victorious note, Owens rides "like a prince" in the lead car of a Manhattan ticker-tape parade honoring his team. An endnote provides facts about Owens's life before and after his Olympic feats. Sometimes calling to mind old-time photographs, Velasquez's (The Other Mozart, reviewed above) pleasingly grainy pastels easily convey the movement and speed, determination and triumph at the core of Owens's uplifting story. Ages 6-11. (Jan.)

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 2–6
The year is 1936, and Owens is about to win an unprecedented four Olympic gold medals in Berlin, toppling Hitler's dream to showcase Aryan superiority. Written in second-person narration, the book focuses tightly on Owens's accomplishments, giving details about each of the four races and his role in uniting people across racial lines. Rich pastel illustrations, many of them based on historical photographs, make this title stand out from biographies illustrated with black-and-white photographs. As a picture book, it gives a sparsely detailed sketch of the events and has a few references that will need further explanation, such as Jim Crow, the autobahn, and concentration camps. The author omits the controversy surrounding Owens's last-minute replacement of a Jewish runner in the 400-meter relay. Briefly referring to the sprinter's childhood and segregation in the United States, the narrator encourages him to "Trounce Jim Crow," illustrated with a fictionalized picture of him running past segregated water fountains. What details exist are clearly researched. The book works well as an introduction for students old enough to begin talking about segregation in the United States and Hitler's Germany. Endnotes give background information.
—Suzanne Myers HaroldCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

This soaring tribute to Owens reserves biographical details for the afterword, focusing instead on his Olympics experience from arrival in Berlin to triumphant ticker-tape parade back in New York. In free verse that occasionally verges on the hyperbolic ("Who knew that you would trample / German might like a clod of dust / in a field of glory?"), Weatherford describes each event, noting Hitler's hostility but also the support that Owens received, both from the crowds and from fellow athletes like Luz Long, his German competitor in the broad jump. Using pastels on rough paper, Velasquez mixes scenes of the muscular Owens in action with vignettes of other significant moments, aptly capturing the drama and excitement of the occasion. A pulse-pounding, if occasionally over-the-top, alternative to the more conventional likes of David A. Adler's Picture Book of Jesse Owens (1992) or Patricia and Frederick McKissack's Jesse Owens, Olympic Star (rev. ed., 2001). Perfunctory reading list appended. (Picture book/biography. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews