Wilma Rudolph (Biography (A & E))

Synopsis

Wilma Rudolph captured three gold medals in one Olympics, an extraordinary feat for any athlete. The accomplishment was even greater for Wilma, who overcame physical disability, poverty, and racism on the path to the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. Born two months prematurely, Wilma wasn't expected to live. She was always sick as a young girl. After she contracted polio at age four, doctors said she would never walk again. But with determination and the help of her loving family, Wilma beat the odds. Not only did she walk again--she ran. She became a star on her high school's basketball and track teams. And just five years after Wilma put away her leg braces for good, she was headed for her first Olympic Games and on her way to becoming the world's fastest woman.

Children's Literature

This biography covers the facts of Wilma Rudolph's life, especially her drive to overcome the effects of polio and to run and compete in athletics just as her siblings and friends. In places, the text creates excitement and interest but, for the most part, it plods methodically from event to event. It would be a good resource for information about Wilma's determination, accomplishments, and the mixture of success and failure in her adult life; students could use the book as a source of information for reports and presentations. However, it isn't a book that entices students to read just for pleasure. As with many of the biographies in the A&E series, there are distractions in the format of the book. Inserted into the text in three places, for example, are two-page spreads that provide extraneous information for the reader--the first explains racism and segregation in the south; the second, polio; the third, women in the Olympics. These asides take the reader from the flow of the text and create distracting diversions. The information provided is important and relevant for a complete understanding of events in the biography, but is ill placed. The book does have some redeeming qualities, however. The photographs help document the facts given in the text; the endnotes (sources) and the bibliography authenticate the information and offer the reader additional places to go for facts; the further readings section cites five other biographies of Wilma Rudolph, and the index (although brief) does provide starting points for research. The book has a place in library collections because of the importance that Wilma Rudolph had in breaking barriers for women in athletics and to add to a growingbody of biographies that presents the lives of women. Better biographies could provide this information in a more interesting manner. 2000, Lerner Publications, Ages 9 up, $24.95. Reviewer: Jenny B. (J. B.) Petty