LeBron James

The Beyond the Game: Athletes Change the World series (2 titles) opens with two early chapter books featuring pro-basketball stars, LeBron James of the NBA and former WNBA player Maya Moore. Each volume offers a very readable biography focused on the athlete's childhood, schooling, and basketball career, followed by an account of his or her decision to change the world in a meaningful way. As young children, both James and Moore were raised in poverty by caring, single mothers. As adults, they are trying to change society for the better. LeBron James reveals how James has created programs to help ensure that children in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, have access to food, housing, and education, while their parents can receive training for employment. With wide-spaced lines of text and attractive, digital illustrations in black and white, the books in this series will appeal to young readers with an interest in basketball and how some of its brightest stars are using their wealth and influence to improve the lives of others. This series' dual purpose offers a refreshing shift of emphasis from the usual sports biographies.

A portrait of the "best basketball player on the planet," focusing particularly on his off-the-court I PROMISE initiative. Maraniss covers LeBron James' life from a young boy to a b-ball titan but positions his subject here as "just a kid from Akron who wanted to help other people." So though he recaps LeBron's professional career (so far) in broad outline, he directs at least as much attention to his work with his hometown's low-income families, his public protests in the wake of the killings of Trayvon Martin and other Black victims, and his defiant response to the Fox News commentator who told him to just "shut up and dribble": "I AM MORE THAN AN ATHLETE." Maraniss also covers the I PROMISE school, which offers meals, bikes, college scholarships, and more to students and even housing and job training for their families. In line with the series theme, backmatter contains both career stats (up to the end of 2023) and challenges to readers to stand up, speak up, and look for ways to give struggling fellow students an assist. "In a world with so much injustice, how will you help others?" Even as a child, LeBron is a charismatic figure in Hodge's monochrome illustrations. Low on sports action; high on humanitarian values. (timeline, glossary) (Biography. 8-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

CHαPTER ΟNE Before he became the best basketball player on the planet, LeBron James was just a poor kid from Akron, Ohio, born to a sixteen-year-old mother without any money or a permanent place to live. Before he was King James, he was a little boy clutching a stuffed animal. He was the kind of kid most people ignore. LeBron didn't have his own bedroom with posters on the wall or clothes hanging in the closet. A permanent home was a luxury Gloria, his mother, could not afford. So they bounced from apartment to apartment, or slept on a friend's couch. LeBron carried his few toys with him. "Don't get comfortable," Gloria would tell him, "because we may not be here long." Sometimes, LeBron stayed home by himself while his mom went to school or to work. The TV kept him company, but it was nothing like the comfort of his mother's presence. So with Gloria gone for hours, he settled for the next best thing, clutching his stuffed blue elephant close to his chest whenever he missed her. Constantly moving from place to place, LeBron missed nearly one hundred days of school one year. He stayed in so many parts of town, he wasn't exactly sure which school he was supposed to attend anyway. One day, when he was eight years old, LeBron was outside playing with friends when a youth football coach drove up to his building looking for kids to join his team. LeBron loved sports but had never played on a real team before. The coach challenged the kids to a hundred-yard sprint. "Fastest one is my running back," he said. LeBron was up for the challenge. Ready. Set. Go! He sprinted so fast he won the race by fifteen yards. The coach was amazed. And he had himself a new running back. LeBron scored seventeen touchdowns in his very first season. Everyone who watched him play could see that LeBron was an amazing athlete. But he was also the kind of kid who had everything stacked against him. In the years to come, he would beat the odds and become one of the most famous people on Earth. But he never forgot where he came from. From Akron. From poverty. From a place where hope was blown out like a candle. They say an elephant never forgets. And neither did the boy who held the blue one. And because LeBron never forgot his roots, he made a promise to help the kids from Akron just like him. Kids who were scared and hungry but full of dreams just like anyone else. And he would use his voice to speak out against the forces that created inequality in the first place. LeBron James's biggest victories have taken place well beyond the game of basketball. Excerpted from Beyond the Game: Lebron James by Andrew Maraniss All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.