Wilma Unlimited, How Wilma Rudolph became the World's Fastest Woman

I randomly pulled the book "Wilma Unlimited" off the shelf in my SBTE's classroom when killing some time because I had arrived early and she was at a meeting. I am so glad I grabbed this book out of the hundred's she keeps in her classroom because it was so intruiging and inspiring. I plan on this being one of the first books I purchase for my own classroom.

Kathleen Krull, the author, begins the story at Wilma's birth. She was born weighing only four pounds and then, time was very limited babies weighing that little. Miraculously, she makes it to her first birthday and the suprises keep coming. She struggles with double pneumonia, mumps, chicken pox, and the list goes on. She even contracts polio, which paralyzes one of her legs. This is a huge problem because only one doctor in Clarksville would treat black people. Many children are permanently crippled, or die, from polio but not Wilma. She has a brace and can't walk for many years, until she decides she is going to put her mind to it, and she walks. She continues to do more leg exercises and eventually strips the brace and walks free. She even begins to play basketball. Basketball is where she got scouted for her speed. A track and field coach from Tennessee State recruits her and she gets a s full athletic scholarship which takes her far away from Clarksville, TN. She ends up being the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single olympics.