The Greatest: Muhammad Ali.

The Greatest: Muhammad Ali by Walter Dean Myers Scholastic Trade, January 2001, $16.95, ISBN 0-590-54342-3

In my childhood there was no single figure that held my attention more than Muhammad Ali. Watching him speak so boldly and without fear sparked a sense of pride in me and many other young black boys. Through the years my love and respect of Ali has grown tenfold and reading this latest project by Walter Dean Myers, I remember why. Myers, winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature for his novel, Monster, inspires a new generation of fans by exposing the hazards Ali faced in boxing, the rise of a champion, and now his battle against Parkinson's disease.

The Greatest: Muhammad Ali is a tribute to the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Myers provides the reader a lesson in the history of a man who made a huge impact on the American consciousness. He chronicles Ali's ascent--from Cassius Clay growing up in segregated Louisville, Kentucky, where he felt the humiliation of seeing water fountains from which he could not drink; rising to an United States Olympic gold medalist; finally becoming a symbol of black pride and anti-war protests. Myers firmly pens Ali's staunch commitment to his political view and religious beliefs and his expressions of race pride. Ali's references to himself as "beautiful" inspired young African Americans and the "Black is Beautiful" movement.

What stands out for me, though, is the description of the events of the early 1960s and their effects on the young Clay. How growing support for the Civil Rights Movement and the March on Washington, and the bombing of a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, all helped to shape the man that became known to the world as Muhammad Ali.