You Go, Girls! The Quickest Kid in Clarksville by Pat Zietlow Miller

I RUN IN PLACE, PRETENDING I'M THE FASTEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD.

OF COURSE, WILMA RUDOLPH, WHO GREW UP IN THIS TOWN, IS THE FASTER THAN ANYONE. BUT I AM THE QUICKEST KID IN CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE.
Alta can't help thinking about how it would feel to be the fastest woman in the world, to have three big heavy gold medals around her neck, to be the fastest and the best.

And then a new girl comes sashaying down the street, wearing brand-new running shoes with laces so clean and white that they glow like neon.

I'M CHARMAINE!" SHE SAYS.

"GOT ME SOME NEW SHOES!"

Alta's shoes are what you might call well broken-in, with holes in the soles.

HUH! Alta thinks. Shoes don't do the running. Feet do. And she's got the fastest feet in Clarksville.

She challenges Charmaine to a race to the mailbox and back and beats her good.

Then Charmaine challenges her to a race to the corner and takes off before Alta can even think about it. And then Charmaine cuts her off and Alta trips, tearing another hole in her old shoes. Charmaine struts across the street, sashaying and making her braids bounce.

Alta limps home, feeling sorry for herself, but then she remembers how Wilma Rudolph had polio and wore a brace on her leg, but worked long and hard to become the fastest woman runner in the world.

Alta gets busy with her friends making a banner for the big parade for Wilma Rudolph, and when they're on their way to hold it up as she drives by, Charmaine comes along and offers to help them carry it.

"COME ON!" SAID CHARMAINE."

WE'LL DO IT LIKE WILMA'S RELAY. THREE PEOPLE RAN IT WITH HER!"

And when Wilma Rudolph rolls by in a convertible, with a big bunch of roses in her arms, she waves and gives a special smile to the two quickest kids in Clarksville, Tennessee, in Pat Zietlow Miller's
The Quickest Kid in Clarksville (Chronicle Books). Zietlow's two spunky characters come together in appreciation for their sport to celebrate their hometown heroine, portrayed with affectionate humor in full-bleed watercolors by artist Frank Morrison's engaging little aspirants for the fastest girl in town, helping young readers to wish them both to have their share of winning in their world. Zietlow's appendix includes an author's note which fills in the details of Wilma Rudolph's amazing Olympic career which inspired others to race to win."Sweet and inspiring," says Kirkus Reviews.