Running Girl: The Diary of Ebonee Rose

This is a good book for a young girl to read when she is getting ready for an upcoming athletic event (especially a race). It is accompanied with excellent photos of famous black track athletes and diary entries that a young girl might place in a personal scrap book as she becomes increasingly interested in track and field. It exposes all of the thrill, self doubt, fear and other emotions that a young athlete might feel as a race day approaches and in this regard is wonderful for any kid to read (it makes them feel more normal). However, one passage, claiming that black women were once replaced on teams by white women that they could clearly beat, raised questions from my daughter (who is white and 9). Although it is possible that this claim is true, it is the first I had heard about it. Either way, parents who buy this book for their children had better be ready to provide some historical perspective on sports and race.