Arthur Ashe: Breaking the Color Barrier in Tennis (African-American Biographies (Raintree Paperback)) [Library Binding]

David K. Wright (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up | Series: African-American Biographies (Raintree Paperback)

A biography of tennis champion Arthur Ashe, covering his personal life and his sports career, as well as his struggles with racism and AIDS.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 4-7--This volume chronicles Ashe's rise from the African-American neighborhoods of Richmond, VA, to become one of the greatest American tennis players ever. With special focus on the athlete's role in breaking open the white world of tennis, this bittersweet story is a telling look at the competitive world of amateur and professional sports. Through his battles to be the best and to make tennis color blind, Ashe continually displayed discipline, strength of character, and strongly held beliefs. As he fought first heart disease and then AIDS, he demonstrated that his hard-earned successes were not flukes but the accomplishments of a great human being. A smattering of black-and-white photos are included. This useful source for reports covers similar ground as David Collins's Arthur Ashe (Dillon, 1994), but provides more details about tennis and about Ashe's health struggles.

Steve Matthews, Foxcroft School, Middleburg, VA

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Library Binding: 128 pages
• Publisher: Enslow Publishers (July 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0894906895
• ISBN-13: 978-0894906893
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #400,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( A ) > Ashe, Arthur

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Person worth reading about, May 12, 2000

By 

Mauricio londono (Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arthur Ashe: Breaking the Color Barrier in Tennis (African-American Biographies (Raintree Paperback)) (Library Binding)

This is one wonderful book. Before I read Breaking the Color Barrier in Tennis, David k. Wright, I have to be honest, I had never heard of Arthur Ashe. It such a shame that there are thousands of people out there, just like me, who never heard of such famous and extraordinary people. Instead, we know about all the negative parts of life, such as drugs and how to use them. They should pick up this book and maybe they will learn something from it. This was a great short book on an amazing man. I hate it when you start reading a book and it is so hard to understand because the author uses confusing words. It seems like you're reading a foreign language. But this book was easy to read and understand. In such a small number of pages, the author writes exactly about whom Arthur Ashe was and what he was about. Even though discrimination towards black people was still going strong during his time, it didn't stop this great black tennis legend from his great accomplishments. And even when he knew that all those accomplishments where going to disappear, due to his diagnose of the AIDS virus from a blood transfusion, he still fought strong and tried to make the best of his last days.