Champion: The Story of Muhammad Ali by Jim Haskins

Champion: The Story of Muhammad Ali Reviews

• 
  Mandy

  This biographical picture book is about the life of Muhammad Ali, the Olympic boxer from Louisville, Kentucky. This book focuses on Muhammad Ali's childhood, when he was named Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., and how he rose to fame. The story also goes into great detail about Ali's adult life. This book is a pretty good biography for older elementary students to read. This could easily be used in a Kentucky history lesson or during Black History Month. I really liked all of the paintings and illustrations in this book; they really brought the story to life. I also liked how the author provided a timeline of Ali's life major life events. The author also included a list of books for further reading about Muhammad Ali. I would recommend using this book with probably 4th or 5th graders since the vocabulary was pretty advanced and some of the concepts were also advanced.
• 
  Patty

  Reading Level: Intermediate
  
  This is a Tumblebooks and can be found at the following url:
  http://www.tumblebooks.com.proxy.nl.e...
  
  This digital book details Muhammad Ali's (Cassius Clay) life. It tells about his struggles growing up and how he became a champion boxer. This book is great for showing students how famous people have struggles to overcome to become successful.
  
  
• 
  Kandace

  I viewed this book on Tumblebooks. I believe this is a good way to share the biographical story of Muhammad Ali. The narrator's male voice adds authenticity to the first person quotes. This informational book documents the details of Muhammad's life, including his career determination and religious roots. Jim Haskins does a thorough job of summarizing the struggles and triumphs of an American legend. The realistic illustrations of Eric Velasquez compliment the genuine and heartfelt text.
• 
  Lois

  Well-organized biography for middle graders covers Cassius Clay's childhood and career including his physical problems, conversion to Islam, political views, and boastful poetry enlivened by Eric Velasquez' marvelous illustrations. Back matter: chronology and selected bibliography for adult, middle-grade, and teen readers.
• 
  Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book*

  Champion: The Story of Muhammad Ali by Jim Haskins, illustrated by Eric Velasquez. NON-FICTION/PICTURE BOOK Bloomsbury (Macmillan), 2018. $18 9781681195889
  
  BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL – ADVISABLE
  
  AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
  
  Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay, Jr.) is known as one of the best heavyweight champions of the world. When he was little his bike got stolen and Cassius at the time wanted to find the person who stole it and beat them up, but a policeman told him he better learn how to fight first and sent him to a gym. From then on, Cassius loved fighting. He trained every chance he got and went on to win at the Olympics and in other important boxing matches. In his personal life, some people didn’t like him because he was cocky and confident about how good he was, but he could back it up with his actions. When Cassius changed his religion from Christian to Black Muslim, he also changed his name. When he was 39, he got Parkinson’s disease and eventually had to leave the ring, but he stayed true to his religion, loved his family and spoke up for what he believed was right.
  
  This is a succinct summary of Ali’s life with fantastic illustrations. The book is text heavy with around three paragraphs per page spread and might appeal to older kids because of the level of understanding. I think Muhammad Ali’s name is famous enough that kids need to have a basic understanding of who he is and this is the perfect book for that.
  
  C. Peterson
  
  https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2018...
• 
  MaryLibrarianOH

  Although a picture book biography there is a lot of text that provides a window into the life of Muhammad Ali. His childhood and his career in the ring. Life like illustrations bring Ali's milestones to life.
• 
  Lupe

  Ali is one of my favorite athletes so I really enjoyed this book. I think the topics are discussed in child-friendly terms and the colors of illustrations are, too. The book also includes a timeline. I hope the students at my school like this book as much as I do.
• 
  Shane

  Beautiful illustrations. But not only that, the story of Ali is always one to be read. This is definitely a book I want to gift my niece and nephew.
• 
  Renee

  It's beautifully illustrated book. It's verbose so I would recommend it to an older child (7-10) who had an interest in sports, boxing, or social activism.
• 
  Maria

  An informative picture books with colorful illustrations about Muhammad Ali. This picture book includes some of his poetry.
• 
  Taryn Vogel

  Personal Reaction: I really liked the illustrations throughout the book. They all looked very lifelike and drew you into what the story was portraying. They did a great job of going hand in hand with the text of the book. How the pages were set up were very interesting as well. Different parts of the text were either big text, or bolded, which made you know that what was being said is important to the story.The timeline in the back is very helpful for students. It will lead to them understand the text more and knowing when things happened in his life.
  
  Purpose: This book is recommended for students ages 6-10. This would be a great book to read right around this time of the year. A lot of students are very aware of the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao that happened last week. If an event happens like that again, this book could be read aloud in class to the students about other famous boxers and more stories behind the sport. This book would create a discussion that the students would definitely be interested in. It could also be used with a history/diversity lesson. Muhammed Ali also faced a lot of strifes being an African American man, and had to overcome a lot of things. This could be used to show what life was like for different races in a time period and what their routines looked like.