NonFiction BookTalker- We Could Be Heroes

Heroes! The Media is full of stories about ordinary people who have become extraordinary role models. And booktalk audiences hunger for more. Joan of Arc. Harry Houdini. Helen Keller. Muhammad Ali. What does this amazing quartet have in common? Ordinary backgrounds, enormous obstacles, a fierce belief in themselves, and sharp instincts for self-promotion.

Diane Stanley's Joan of Arc (Morrow, 1998) tells of the illiterate teenager who lived in a small village in medieval France. Joan heard voices, voices of the saints she loved, telling her that she alone could save her country. After listening for four years, Joan swung into action. She chopped off her hair, traveled to the town her voices described, and sought her king. The Hundred Years' War that was ripping France apart had prevented the king from being crowned and he needed help, lots of help. How this peasant teenager found her king and united France has fascinated people for centuries.

Close your eyes. Then cover your ears. If you cannot hear or see at all, you can imagine what it was like to be the subject of Laurie Lawlor's Helen Keller, Rebellious Spirit (Holiday House, 2001). An illness in infancy had left Helen completely deaf and blind. Her eyes were eventually surgically removed. Her dark, silent universe contained no language. Helen's overwhelmed parents, after years of spoiling their beloved daughter, decided to hire a special teacher.

The teacher, Ann Sullivan, was just a teenager herself, but she had a fierce determination. Teacher and student fought furiously but Helen's intelligence matched Annie's stubbornness. In what some called a miracle, Annie helped Helen understand that the cold, liquid stuff running through her hands at the water pump had a name—and that other things had names, too. Helen learned to write and to speak! She even performed in vaudeville! This book will astound your listeners.

The title of Spellbinder: The Life of Harry Houdini (Tom Lalicki, Holiday House, 2000) is dead on. Seventy years after his death, Houdini still mesmerizes us. The world's greatest escape artist started life as Ehrich Weiss. Born in Hungary in 1874 and raised in Wisconsin, he ran away from home to make his fortune. No one knows how he got his first break, but by 18 he was performing magic shows. He changed his name to Houdini after his hero, the great French magician Robert-Houdin. Houdini was an expert at escaping from handcuffs and prisons, and an absolute genius at getting publicity. Whenever he visited a new town, his first feat was to break out of the local jail—while the police watched! Houdini devised unusual water tricks: chained and padlocked or strapped into a straitjacket, he would then be submerged in ice-cold water. One reason so many people flocked to his performances was the very real possibility that he might die during one of his tricks. When death finally did come, it was a direct result of the illusion that he could not be hurt (a blow to the stomach by a young challenger eventually proved fatal).

Life wasn't always great for The Greatest: Muhammed Ali (Walter Dean Myers, Scholastic, 2001). As an African-American kid growing up in Kentucky, Cassius Clay knew he would never have the opportunities available to white kids. He could not attend their better schools, eat at their restaurants, or drink from the same water fountain.

Clay started taking boxing lessons when he was 12, after his bicycle was stolen. He worked harder and moved faster than anyone else, which eventually led to an Olympic gold medal. Later, he rejected his old moniker, calling it a "slave name," and became a Muslim. The new Ali's outspoken pride in himself and his black heritage was unusual for the time: he was brazen and loud, qualities that alienated many. This gripping tale chronicles Ali's rise to heavyweight champion, as well as his unfair persecution for refusing to be drafted, which led to him being stripped of his crown.

Middle school kids will learn that true heroes are not overnight millionaires or Hollywood celebrities, but ordinary people thrust into extraordinary events, people who achieve greatness by the qualities they bring from deep within themselves. These fantastic four are among those inspiring women and men.