I Am Muhammad Ali: Ordinary People Change the World

Parents need to know that I Am Muhammad Ali is a part of the award-winning Ordinary People Change the World series by author Brad Meltzer and illustrator Christopher Eliopoulos, which features notable characters from history and current events as pint-size cartoon characters facing and triumphing over many challenges. In this case, it's Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay; the name change is part of the story), aka "The Greatest." The book shows how he achieved renown as an Olympic gold medalist in boxing and became the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, a principled draft refuser, and a civil rights icon. The authors emphasize Ali's experiences of racism as a Black kid in the South, his discovery of the world of boxing, where skin color was not a barrier, and his strong refusal to compromise his principles by being drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War (a position ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court). The story ends in 1973 with the Rumble in the Jungle, his match against George Foreman, and makes no mention of the brutal, brain-damaging effects of boxing, the probable cause of Ali's 1984 diagnosis with Parkinson's disease. (It's not mentioned in the story, but there's a brief mention on the timeline.) It focuses on his strategy and skill rather than the estimated 200,000 blows he took to the head over the course of his career.