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Cover Image

The power of one

by Courtenay, Bryce, 1933-2012.

Format: Print Book 2005
Availability: Available at 3 Libraries 3 of 3 copies

Available (3)
Location Collection Call #
Carnegie Free Library of Swissvale Young Adult Fiction YA Fic Cou
Location  Carnegie Free Library of Swissvale
 
Collection  Young Adult Fiction
 
Call Number  YA Fic Cou
 
 
Jefferson Hills Public Library Young Adult YA FIC COU
Location  Jefferson Hills Public Library
 
Collection  Young Adult
 
Call Number  YA FIC COU
 
 
Mt. Lebanon Public Library Children's Fiction j COURTENAY
Location  Mt. Lebanon Public Library
 
Collection  Children's Fiction
 
Call Number  j COURTENAY
 
 

Summary
In 1939, hatred took root in South Africa, where the seeds of apartheid were newly sown. There a boy called Peekay was born. He spoke the wrong language--English. He was nursed by a woman of the wrong color--black. His childhood was marked by humiliation and abandonment. Yet he vowed to survive--he would become welterweight champion of the world, he would dream heroic dreams. But his dreams were nothing compared to what awaited him. For he embarked on an epic journey, where he would learn the power of words, the power to transform lives, and the mystical power that would sustain him even when it appeared that villainy would rule the world: The Power of One.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Gr. 9-12. I went in under the arm with a quick uppercut and caught him in the ribs. The sports action is exciting in this story about Peekay, a white English-speaking boy in rural South Africa during World War II, who becomes a talented boxer and dreams of being welterweight champion of the world. With the help of several mentors, including an Afrikaner, a German botanist and pianist, a Coloured (mixed-race) worker in the local jail, a brave librarian, and a Jewish teacher, Peekay not only wins the local boxing championship but helps desperate African chain-gang prisoners send letters home. The original book was published for adults and made into a movie with Morgan Freeman; this effective condensation for YAs gives a sense of personal uplift, despite the virulent racism, but American teens won't get the complex political history. What is timeless is the picture of the sport and the kid who takes on the giants and wins. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2005 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "PW wrote of Bryce Courtenay's 1989 adult book, "Episodic and bursting with incident, this sprawling memoir of an English boy's lonely childhood in South Africa during WWII pays moderate attention to questions of race but concerns itself primarily with epic melodrama." In The Power of One: Young Readers' Condensed Version, the author adapts the first half of his semi-autobiographical tale, but keeps all of the action in the boxing ring and the David and Goliath message of victory over adversity. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Self-confidence -- Fiction.
Conduct of life -- Fiction.
Boxing -- Fiction.
Prejudices -- Fiction.
Apartheid -- Fiction.
Prisons -- Fiction.
World War, 1939-1945 -- South Africa -- Fiction.
Self-confidence -- Juvenile fiction.
Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction.
Boxing stories.
Prejudices -- Juvenile fiction.
Apartheid -- Juvenile fiction.
Prisons -- Juvenile fiction.
World War, 1939-1945 -- South Africa -- Juvenile fiction.
South Africa -- History -- 1909-1961 -- Fiction.
South Africa -- History -- 1909-1961 -- Juvenile fiction.
Publisher New York :Delacorte Press,2005
Edition Young readers' condensed ed.
Other Titles Power of 1
Language English
Notes "This condensed version originally published by Penguin Books, Australia Ltd. in 1999"--T.p. verso.
Description 291 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN 0385732546 (hc.)
0385902743 (glb)
Other Classic View