Richie's Picks: TWELVE ROUNDS TO GLORY: THE STORY OF MUHAMMAD ALI by Charles
R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Bryan Collier, Candlewick, November 2007, ISBN:
978-7636-1692-2.
"You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned?
Wait till I whup George Forman's behind.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,
His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.
Now you see me, now you don't,
George thinks he will, but I know he won't.
I done wrassled with an alligator,
I done tussled with a whale,
Only last week I murdered a rock,
Injured a stone, hospitalized a brick,
I'm so mean I make medicine sick."
-- Muhammad Ali (as quoted in TWELVE ROUNDS TO GLORY)
Back in June, when the American Library Association was meeting in
Washington, D.C., I had the opportunity to spend some quality time over in the
National Portrait Gallery. After immersing myself in historical portraits for
hours, blissfully wandering through dozens of rooms, alcoves and hallways, I had
the good fortune to encounter an amazing exhibit titled "Being There," which
showcased more than one hundred unforgettable photographs by Harry Benson. It
was like looking at a visual soundtrack of the world I've experienced
through the media over my five decades of life on Earth.
While there were a number of photos in the exhibit with which I was quite
familiar, one that I could not believe I'd never seen before has Muhammad Ali
with his boxing gloves laced up, clowning with the Beatles when they visited
his training camp in 1964.
It was so fascinating to see John Lennon and Muhammad Ali together in a
photo like that, one that was taken in the era when I first got to see each of
them on television, a sweet, innocent time for me despite the recent
Presidential assassination having shaken my childhood.
"I ain't got no quarrel with the VietCong. No VietCong ever called me
nigger."
-- Muhammad Ali
"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd
be peace."
-- John Lennon
It would be these two larger-than-life figures, two of the most famous
people in world that I've lived through, two men I idolized from the early Sixties
onward, who would change my life and my outlook on everything I'd previous
thought, when each spoke out so passionately during my young adolescent years
against the Vietnam War.
TWELVE ROUNDS TO GLORY is a visual and textual celebration of the life and
times of a great American hero. Amidst the recounting of his legendary boxing
career -- bout-by-memorable-bout -- we see how Ali's legacy as a man of
conscience, an antiwar spokesman whose words echoed the world over, became one of
the pivotal aspects of his life. The other legacy, also portrayed so
vividly here, is of Ali's desire to help those in need, and his need to eventually
go back into the ring at an age when he shouldn't have done so in order to
earn huge paychecks that could be used to finance care for the underprivileged
in America. It is so sad to contemplate how Ali might be in far better shape
today if he'd not felt it necessary to put his physical well-being, his
mortal body, on the line for the sake of others.
Woven into TWELVE ROUNDS OF GLORY are significant chapters of the story of
the America of my own lifetime:
"Admired and loved
by your Olympic peers,
you soon returned home
to parades of wild cheers
that greeted you
as you stepped off the plane
with hundreds of people
all chanting your name:
'Ca-shus,
Ca-shus,'
they roared across Louisville.
But the welcome was short
because away from the sport
the country you fought for still
put people, like laundry,
in two separate piles,
and forced you, a black man, to deal
with hate-filled words
spit into your ear,
like, 'I don't care who you are,
boy; get out of here!'
With anger and hate directed at you
they tried to sucker-punch your pretty brown face.
But anger and hate, thrown like weak jabs,
couldn't knock out
a prince of black race.
Sparking fire inside,
fanning flames of black pride,
fanning flames of courage
and heart you would ride
while blazing your path
as you turned pro,
you burned with a fire
that set you aglow.
Fighting opponents and hatred
with two glowing gloves,
you spoke your mind freely
while radiating love.
A black prince perched
on the precipice of fame,
young Cassius, the world
would soon chant your name."
Illustrator Bryan Collier -- who is a champion in his own right with
repeated Caldecott and Coretta Scott King award recognition -- has created
watercolor-and-collage images that often have the larger-than-life Ali busting
right
out of the pages. Large blocky text quotes and sounds from the ring dance
through the pages, peppering the verses of text and providing balance to the
paintings.
"If God's with me, can't nobody be against me!"
-- Cassius Clay
TWELVE ROUNDS TO GLORY is one of those joyful noise books: it didn't matter
a bit that I was sitting here alone (not counting the old dog downstairs). I
just couldn't help but to read the whole book cover to cover, aloud and
loudly, getting into the groove of the rhythm and the rhyme of the verse.
"THWACK!"
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
Moderator, _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks)
************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation.
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/
* LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
* LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home