greatest boxer around during the peak of the civil rights era. Walter Dean Myers, two-time Newbery-Honor award winner, and author of the biography, The Greatest: Muhammad Ali, provides his readers with an inspirational account of the life of
Muhammad Ali, arguably the greatest boxer of all time. In this biography, Myer's presents a description of Ali's early life, from his childhood, on up to his 1960 Olympic gold medal win, the drama he went
through involving the Vietnam War, his conversion to Islam and subsequent name change from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali, all the way up to this former heavyweight boxing champions most recent years
of diminishing health, and old age. This biography will be thouroughly enjoyable for the majority of readers who are able to comprehend the text because, Myers does an excellent job at keeping the text
flowing in a fast-paced and thrilling manner; while conveying the historical context & action of the fights and trials that Ali endured in order to become the global icon that he is today. Right off the bat, Myers informs his audience that the content of the text will be chiefly about Ali's professional life, rather than his personal life. As evidenced in the introduction of this biography (Pages: ix-xii), Myers reasoning behind placing the emphasis of the text on Ali's professional life is basically an atempt to highlight Ali's boxing career; to put the reason he is commonly reffered to as "The Greatest" under the spotlight. Myers decision to eschew the topic of Ali's personal life in the text blatantly correlates with the fact that he doesn't want his audience to scrutinize Ali in a captious manner like many of his fans did during his boxing career because, although several of his personal choices, and numerous