Who Was Jesse Owens? by James Buckley Jr.

Who Was Jesse Owens? Reviews

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  Janete on hiatus due health issues

  Read along with a Scribd audio.
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  Tito john

  very nice
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  Pumkin pie

  I loved it.
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  Andy Zell

  I wanted to try reading a biography to my kids. Since they have watched and remembered watching Usain Bolt in the Olympics, I thought reading about a past track star would be interesting to them. They liked it okay.
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  Landen

  Who Was Jesse Owens by James Buckley Jr. was a great book. This book was about Jesse Owens and his life story. Also about his achievements throughout his life and accomplishments. Some of his great achievements was winning 4 gold medals in the Olympics.
  
  In my opinion this was a really good book. My favorite part was when he set all of the world records in one Olympic entering. I also really liked how the book went in chronological order. It helped me follow along with the book better.
  
  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes sports, drama, adventure, and even mystery. If you like any of these topics you will love this book like I did. So please read it and I am sure you will like it.
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  Jacob Vanden Avond

  My younger brother got this for Easter, and since I recently saw the movie Race which was about his life, I thought it would be neat to read this book and learn more about him. Easy read, about 80 pages with pictures in it, so any easy read for me. But this was a very good book. I learned a lot more about Owens than the movie said.
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  AMY

  106 pages. Great biography with lots of good solid information and excellent illustrations. It is an inspiring story. There is extra historical information throughout that helps a reader understand the social context in the background of the main events. The timelines at the end of the book are helpful. Highly recommended for Grade 5.
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  Kim

  For the past two weeks, we have focused on WW2 and sports as a family. We read Boys in the Boat, Unbroken [Young Adult Version], and now "Who Was Jesse Owens?." We have enjoyed all of these true stories, and it is amazing to think that all these phenomenal athletes were all on the same boat that sailed for 9 days from the U.S. to Europe to participate in the 1936 Olympics in Germany.
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  C

  A good book for elementary and middle school students.
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  Kelly

  Covers not only Owens, but the issues of his time...the war, the Nazis, and racism. Very good.
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  Reving

  
  https://revingsblog.blogspot.com/2018...
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  Dodie

  A good kids book to get an overall idea of how Jesse Owens life was like.
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  David Rough

  I have recently found this nice series of biographies for young readers. Various authors have contributed to this series, which now includes over 160 books. Each book is short (about 100 pages) and gives a good summary of a historical figure. The list of people includes explorers, scientists, painters, authors, musicians; there is a good balance between males and females demonstrating the importance of both genders in the accomplishments of mankind.
  
  My second read in this series of biograghies was Jesse Owens. Jesse Ownes was a well-known name for me growing up in the 1960-70s. His exploits in track and field were legendary and I remember reading about the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and Owens’triumphs right in the presence of Hitler himself. The author communicated with energy and enthusiasm capturing the amazing athletic accomplishments of this outstanding American.
  
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  AUDIOBOOKIN MY AZZ OFF

  Who Was Jesse Owens? by James Buckley Jr.
  Published August 11, 2015
  
  <3
  
  At the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, track and field star Jesse Owens ran himself straight into international glory by winning four gold medals. But the life of Jesse Owens is much more than a sports story. Born in rural Alabama under the oppressive Jim Crow laws, Owens's family suffered many hardships. As a boy he worked several jobs like delivering groceries and working in a shoe repair shop to make ends meet. But Owens defied the odds to become a sensational student athlete, eventually running track for Ohio State. He was chosen to compete in the Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany where Adolf Hitler was promoting the idea of "Aryan superiority." Owens's winning streak at the games humiliated Hitler and crushed the myth of racial supremacy once and for all.
  
  
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  Melissa

  Solid biography of a sports hero I have a personal soft spot for. I appreciated the inclusion of Owens’ struggle to find work after Olympic fame, the evolution of his thinking on civil rights protest and the criticism he took from some in the Black community. I missed the mention of the U.S. refusal to dip the flag before Hitler in the opening ceremony. My real quibble is with the illustrations at the beginning. The text tells us the 13 strong, dirt poor Owens family didn’t have money for clothes and that Jesse was ashamed when he saw the neighbor girls and didn’t have enough clothes to cover his body - but the images show a well dressed family both at work and heading off in fancy attire for their 9 mile walk to church.
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  Dan

  J. C. aka Jesse Owens loved to run from the time he was a little boy. He loved running so much he worked hard in school and became one of the best runners of all time in the state of Ohio. He continued to work hard and eventually tried out for the Olympics. He won four metals during the 1936 Olympics breaking several records along the way. He also worked many jobs to help out his family when he was young and as he grew older and married. This book shows the growth he accomplished in both is athletic and home life. It is a great resource to learn about one of America's greatest athletic legends.
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  Denise

  As an adult I picked this book up to add to our free little library and wanted to check out the book myself. I have to admit I knew little of Mr Owens and this book filled in some of those gaps. There is just enough information to make me want to learn more, as it is written for a younger crowd I hope they too find the desire to move on from this nice start up of who Jesse Owens was and build on the knowledge.
  Easy read, with nice side notes of information about subjects related to Jesse's life and or times.
  
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  Kimberly Navarro

  I never really knew much about Jesse Owens, and I found this biography very interesting as well as informative. I loved how it stopped the story to include background knowledge of certain events, people or places. I think by doing that it keeps the reader engaged and allows for connections to history. I would recommend this book to older elementary students, but it would also be a great series for any high school classroom library.
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  Emma

  J.C. getting the name Jesse reminds me of when I first met one of my best friends and thought her name was "Mel" but it turned out I was calling her the wrong name all year. I tease Mallorie about it all the time.
  On another note, Jesse is awesome for working hard. I can't even walk up stairs without being winded.
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  Natalie

  I still just don't really care about athletes. It is cool that Jesse broke all those world records so quickly, but I just think that few things are less impressive than sports stars.
  
  The kids will like it though. They always love the athletes.