Queen of the Track: Alice Coachman, Olympic High-Jump Champion

by Heather Lang, Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)

Overview

Here is a story of Alice Coachman, the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

When Alice Coachman was a girl, most White people wouldn't even shake her hand. Yet when the King of England placed an Olympic medal around her neck in 1948, he extended his hand to Alice in congratulations. Standing on a podium in London's Wembley Stadium, Alice was a long way from the fields of Georgia where she ran barefoot as a child. With a record-breaking leap, she had become the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. This inspirational picture book is perfect to celebrate Women's History Month or to share any day of the year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635926781
Publisher:	Astra Publishing House
Publication date:	08/10/2021
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	37 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Heather Lang, a former public-health attorney, was inspired by Alice Coachman's indomitable spirit. This is her first picture book. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts. Visit heatherlang.com. 


Floyd Cooper (1956–2021) illustrated over 110 books for children, including Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford, for which he was awarded a Caldecott Honor, the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, and a Sibert Honor. He was also the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award for The Blacker the Berry; three Coretta Scott King Honors for I Have Heard of a Land, Meet Danitra Brown, and Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea; 10 ALA Notables; and an NAACP Image Award, among other honors. Visit floydcooper.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Lang brings her subject's early years to life through small details. . . . Cooper's pastels keep to a brown, grainy palette, recalling the Georgia dirt on which the track star ran as a child." —School Library Journal

"From the hardships of her Georgia childhood through the 1948 London Olympics at which she won gold and became a legend, this biography stands out for the lesser-known details it includes (e.g. Coachman's dance performance aboard the London-bound ship). Cooper's grainy sepia-hued pastels are striking; endnotes with more about Coachman and the historic 1948 Olympics support the thorough text." —The Horn Book

From the Publisher

Gr 2–5—Coachman, the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal, was born in poverty in Georgia in 1922. She always loved to run and jump and would sneak off to do it even when it meant punishment. Lang brings her subject's early years to life through small details, like the fact that she ran so fast that she was able to deliver still-hot meals as a rescue worker in the aftermath of a 1940 tornado, and the difficulties of traveling to meets and events during segregation. The bulk of the story, though, focuses on Coachman's Olympic dreams, which were put on hold during World War II, when the games were canceled twice. Finally, in 1948, she traveled to war-weary London to compete and narrowly defeated her toughest opponent with a record-setting high jump. Cooper's pastels keep to a brown, grainy palette, recalling the Georgia dirt on which the track star ran as a child. While this book is a fine, if talky, introduction to an inspiring athlete, Ann Malespina's Touch the Sky: Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumper (Albert Whitman, 2011), with its vivid prose-poem text and glowing oils by Eric Velasquez, might have more immediate appeal.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD

School Library Journal