RACING AGAINST THE ODDS

RACING AGAINST THE ODDS: THE STORY OF WENDELL SCOTT, STOCK CAR RACING'S AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHAMPION

Written by: Carole Boston Weatherford Illustrated by: Eric Velasquez
Paperback| Pages: 40
Size: 8.5 x 1 x 6.5 inches USD:$9.95
ISBN: 978-1477810934
Publication Date: January 9, 2018 Edition: ‎Reprint Publisher: ‎ Two Lions
Age: 6 - 8 years

About the Book

Wendell O. Scott made history as the only black driver to win a race in a NASCAR Grand National (now Spring Cup) division. Born in Danville, Virginia, he scrimped and saved to buy his first car, a Model T, at age fourteen. Although he “loved to turn the wheel of a racecar, work magic on an engine, and then push it faster than it was ever meant to go,” he never had the resources or sponsorship to buy a brand-new racecar. Using secondhand Fords that he fixed up in his garage, he competed in five hundred races in NASCAR’s top division.

Eric Velasquez’s illustrations and Carole Boston Weatherford’s rhythmic text illuminate the story of a man who worked full-time while racing on the side. A man who married, raised six children, and educated all of them. A man who “didn’t just dust the competition, he blazed a trail.” A man who raced against all odds.

An author’s note is also included.

★★★ THE REVIEWS ARE IN! ★★★

Thanks to this exciting book, young readers will enjoy a dramatic story that, unfortunately, they’ll probably never hear about in school.” ―Brian Donovan, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of Scott’s biography

Wendell Scott was in a hurry from day one.” Having earned enough (“fifteen bucks”) to buy a Model T Ford at the age of 14, he went on to drive a cab (and collect a prodigious number of speeding tickets), operate a garage and run moonshine. “So when a race promoter wanted a black driver, the police said, ‘Scott’s your man. Ain’t nobody faster.’ ” Weatherford develops her character neatly and with conviction, hitting hard at his seemingly unquenchable enthusiasm for speed and his resilience in the face of enduring racism. Readers will feel her anger and his when, after becoming the first (and only) African American to win a NASCAR race, he had to watch blatantly biased judges award the trophy to a white man (they recanted later, giving him a replacement, “a wooden piece of junk,” a month later). Velasquez’s typically heroic pastels depict the smiling white driver mugging for the camera while a furious Scott looms outside the frame. Eye-opening, exhilarating and inspiring. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)-Kirkus