The Greatest: Muhummad Ali

Myers, Walter Dean. The Greatest: Muhummad Ali. Scholastic, 2001. 172 pp. Lexile 1030.

Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay, has been called the greatest athlete of the twentieth century.  Renowned YA writer Walter Dean Myers clearly admires Ali as an athlete and as a political activist.  This compelling biography emphasizes the public man and his sport, with little about his personal life.  Sports fans will appreciate the level of detail throughout about Ali’s boxing.  Myers also thoroughly addresses Ali’s famous conversion to Islam and refusal to fight in Vietnam, discussing the largely negative reaction of sportswriters and fans but also the inspiration at the time to young black men such as Myers himself. As he says in his introduction, “Heroes that looked anything like me were hard to come by when I was a kid growing up in Harlem.”  With a black-and-white photograph in almost every chapter and a timeline of fights at the end, this will be an appealing choice for a biography or history unit, or pleasure reading.

Reading Std #7:  Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, visually and quantitatively, and in words.  Students who like boxing may be interested in viewing the Oscar-nominated documentary, "When We Were Kings," about the heavyweight championship fight in Zaire--now the Democratic Republic of the Congo--between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, which took place in 1974, after Ali had an earlier championship title taken away when he refused to serve in the military.  (Some students may find the boxing footage disturbing.)  Have students compare the tone of the movie and its attitude towards Ali with that of the Myers biography.

Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America

Blumenthal, Karen. Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America. 2005. 152pp. Lexile 1140.

This year is the 40th anniversary of Title IX, with good reason to celebrate. In 1972, 2 out of 54 girls played high school sports; today 2 out of 5 do. Title IX, one of the most successful federal laws of the twentieth century. This excellent chronological account uses charts throughout to show the law's effect over the years as schools reluctantly complied with the requirements for more equality for girls in sports (only one aspect of the law). Politicians, college administrators, and NCAA officials resisted, citing lack of girls' interest, an argument which was quickly proven false. Stories and sidebars highlight individual girls who wanted to participate in athletics but were denied because they were female, showing the unfair situation before the law--and until it was enforced.  Although girls and women still face discrimination in athletics, the gains have been extraordinary.  Photographs, cartoons, magazine covers, and memorabilia enhance this often moving narrative.  Source notes, timeline, further reading, bibliography, and index.

Reading Std #3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. Blumenthal uses cartoons and comic strips throughout the book to add humor and insight.  Have students analyze changes over time, if any, in the cartoons--the first one is from 1909--in political content and approach.