An easy biography of the Olympic medal-winning sprinter and champion of the long jump recounts some of the childhood barriers overcome by the amazing African-American athlete with "lucky legs." Jesse Owens' accomplishments at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin led to him being called the "World's Fastest Human" for many years. Adler's brief biography and page of notes point out racist and anti-Semitic occurrences during the 1936 Olympics, as well as the fact that prejudice was faced by this honored son of a former sharecropper afterward at home. Profusely illustrated with Casilla's watercolor paintings, there is also a brief chronology. (Ages 5-9)

A sharecropper's son becomes a four-time Olympic gold medalist.