Becoming Muhammad Ali

Before he became Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay was a child in Louisville, Kentucky, learning how family, school, friendship, and racism shaped his world. After his bicycle was stolen, twelve-year-old Cassius began training as an amateur boxer and soon entered his first Golden Gloves competition. Told in a combination of prose and verse, the biographical novel follows his life through age seventeen and traces the discipline, confidence, and public voice that preceded his emergence as an internationally known athlete.