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Alta was the fastest runner in
Clarksville, Tennessee, and everybody knew it.
She wasn’t as fast as Wilma
Rudolph, but Alta was close and that made her dream. What,
she wondered, would it be like to have three Olympic gold
medals hanging around her neck?
Would Wilma bring her medals
to the parade she’d be riding in? The parade was tomorrow;
Alta and her friends were even making a banner for it.
And then some girl Alta had
never met before came “sashaying” over with the brand-spankingest,
whitest shoes Alta had ever seen. She said her name was
Charmaine and her shoes sparkled - they were just made for
running. Alta’s shoes had holes in them but shoes can’t tell
who’ll win a race. Not even Wilma had the best things, at
first.
Alta challenged Charmaine to
a race – and won.
Charmaine challenged Alta to
another race – and Charmaine won.
Alta was sure that was
because Charmaine tripped her. Or because Alta’s toe was
poking out of the front of her shoe, which really made her
sad because Mama said those shoes had to last…
On parade day, while Alta and
her friends were finishing the banner, Charmaine came by,
strutting “like she’s queen of the block.” Alta wasn’t
having any of that; she far preferred to remember that Wilma
Rudolph, the fastest woman alive, was coming to town to be
in a parade. Maybe she might even see the banner, and she
might wave.
As Alta started to run to the
parade route with the banner, she suddenly realized that the
banner was heavy and awkward. It wrapped itself up and
caught the wind. It was long, too. There’d be no way she’d
get to the parade in time.
How would she ever make it?
Who likes to lose? Nobody,
that’s who, but there are times when losing isn’t a bad
thing. Sometimes, it means winning and The Quickest Kid in
Clarksville shows your child how that works.
There’s a lot of sass and
attitude inside this book, and charm all over: author Pat
Zeitlow Miller’s main character has scads of it, in fact,
but it’s a confident boldness that kids just can’t miss.
Thanks to artwork by Frank Morrison, the fierceness never
leaves Alta’s face, even when her new adversary steps into
the ‘hood – a frenemy who’s surprisingly equal to Alta -
leading to a show-down, an ultimate olive branch, and an
ending that’ll make you smile.
If your kids are curious,
Miller also includes a page on the real Wilma Rudolph,
putting this book into further prospective. That may be too
much info for younger readers, but five-to-eight-year-olds
might find The Quickest Kid in Clarksville to be the best.
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