Her mother called her "Baby," not her given name of Mildred. Because she could hit a baseball so well, the neighborhood children called her "Babe" after the "King of Swat," and that was the way she was known her entire life. When Babe was a teenager, she told her family that one day she would participate in the Olympics. On her way to that goal, she played on a women's basketball team and won medals at track and field events. With her skills, determination, hard work and practice, she set three world records and won two gold medals and a silver at the 1932 Olympics -- earning the title, "World's Greatest Woman Athlete." Well-chosen incidents in simple sentences and large type present the story of this amazing athlete's childhood and her rise to national prominence. An afterword tells how she then went on to a career in professional golf. The soft-toned illustrations fulfill their purpose in providing supporting clues for the text in this beginning reader. Part of the "On My Own" series.

From School Library Journal

This easy-reader begins with Didrikson's childhood and ends with her track-and-field triumphs at the 1932 Olympics. Sutcliffe recounts that even as a youngster in Texas, Babe raced streetcars and literally ran errands in hopes of becoming the best athlete in the world. Her amazing high school basketball career led to a position on the Golden Cyclones, a group of female athletes sponsored by the Employers Casualty Insurance Company. The team manager also formed a track-and-field team that gave his star player the opportunity to become a national champion and participate in the Olympics. Soft, realistic colored-pencil drawings on every page add information and emotion. A note about her life after the Olympics is appended. This title will fill the need for more accessible titles about women in sports and serve as a stepping stone to Russell Freedman's Babe Didrikson Zaharias (Clarion, 1999).-Jean Gaffney, Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library, OH Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|