Approximately three pages are devoted to each of the 28 athletes who are profiled, with shorter entries for other athletes in the same fields. (It would be easier to use the book if the athletes were presented in alpha- betical order.) The featured athletes, accompanied by black and white photographs, were born between 1896 and 1994, making this more of a book about athletes of the past than the present. With baseball, basketball, boxing and football as major categories, and having been male-dominated sports for so long, it is not surprising that 21 of the featured athletes are men. The most compelling stories, in fact, belong to the men who broke barriers during the earliest days. The boxers Benny Leonard and Barney Ross, both from Orthodox families who were opposed to fighting, were heroes to the Jewish community at a time of intense anti-Semitism and the reform school veteran, Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, who became an actor after retiring from the ring, was idolized for defeating the German champion, Adolph Heuser, two months after Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Many of the other great athletes also faced discrimination, and all were considered sources of pride for what they accomplished.
Recommended for ages 11 – 18.
Susan Kantor was a senior writer/editor for Girl Scouts of the USA, a children’s book editor, and a past judge for the National Jewish Book Awards in the illustrated children’s book category. She is a writer and a docent at the Rubin Museum in New York City, where she leads public and private tours.
