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Michelle Kwan: My Story - Heart Of A Champion |  | Authors: Michelle Kwan, Laura M. James
Publisher: Scholastic
Category: Book
List Price: $4.99
Buy Used: $0.01
as of 2/10/2010 08:43 EST details
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Used (41) from $0.01
Seller: thrift_books
Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 643366
Media: Paperback
Edition: illustrated edition
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 3.8 x 0.5
ISBN: 0590763563
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.912092
EAN: 9780590763561
ASIN: 0590763563
Publication Date: March 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
At 16, Californian Michelle Kwan claimed the women's World Champion crown in figure skating. A bright and appealing role model for kids and adults alike, her story is one of hard work and true achievement. Full-color photos.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 58
 Great book for skaters! June 28, 2009
Laurie McConnell (Thornton, CO United States)
My daughter and I really enjoyed this book by Michelle Kwan. The story is very interesting and I like how Kwan focuses so much of the book on what she did to be the best (good sportsmanship, positive attitude, hard work). Very good values for aspiring skaters to read about and see that a champion follows, too! I also recommend her other book-- it reads more like an inspirational, quiz-type book, kind of like an American Girl magazine. This one is more pure biography.
On Time, As Ordered December 6, 2008
Dr. Gordinho (Portland, OR)
The book is a good read for youngsters. Ironically, it cost a penny, which was less than half a percent of the shipping/handling charges. No complaint, though, because in an upside down economy, what can you expect?
 There should be a rule against teenagers writing autobiographies November 13, 2006
J C E Hitchcock (Tunbridge Wells, Kent, United Kingdom)
There should be a rule against teenagers writing autobiographies. Even teenagers who have achieved as much as Michelle Kwan had by the age of seventeen.
There was, admittedly, an obvious commercial reason for bringing this book out in 1997, just ahead of the 1998 Winter Olympics at which Kwan was expected to win a gold medal. She was fortunate to come into her sport immediately after the notorious Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan affair in 1994. The skating authorities had feared that this affair (variously known as Waterskate or the Battle of Wounded Knee) would damage their sport, but in fact it had precisely the opposite effect, thus proving conclusively that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Public interest in figure skating was therefore at its height in the mid-nineties, and much of this interest centred on Kwan, Tara Lipinski and Nicole Bobek who had succeeded Harding and Kerrigan as America's leading female skaters. Bobek, another pretty blue-eyed blonde with a troubled history, was immediately crowned Queen Tonya II, leaving Kwan and Lipinski to skate off for Kerrigan's role as America's sweetheart (a role in which Nancy herself had often seemed ill at ease).
There are two main problems with this book. The first is that it came far too early in Kwan's career. Since 1997 she has gone on to become one of the great female figure skaters of all time, the winner of five world and nine American national titles. Originally criticised as a "jumping bean", a purely technical skater, she has developed into one of the most artistic skaters of recent years. (She has never won an Olympic title, but the blame for that must lie with the eccentric judges who handed the 1998 gold medal to Lipinski, a skater who throughout her amateur career never seemed to get beyond the "jumping bean" stage). In 1997 Kwan's career was only just beginning, and her ghostwriter Laura James was left with little to do except narrate a pedestrian and repetitive account of Kwan's childhood and her early skating career, leavened with occasional bits of bland philosophising. The second problem is that it the book is appallingly badly written. Ghostwriters are not normally noted for a polished literary style, but James's is dull far beyond the call of duty.
I was disappointed with this book because I have always been such an admirer of Kwan as a skater. (The second star is awarded more for her skating style than for her book's literary merits). I hope that one day, preferably after she has retired, she will find the time to produce a proper autobiography and tell the full- and doubtless fascinating- story of one of figure skating's great careers. If she lacks the time or self-confidence to write it herself (although I generally find that autobiographies actually written by the celebrity whose name appears on the cover often read better than ghostwritten ones) she should find a writer whose talent matches her own for skating.
reason for a champion October 5, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
. Maggie Willems
9-29-05
Period 4
Story of a champion
Michelle Kwan
I chose Heart of a Champion because Michelle Kwan is an inspirational woman in a tough sport. She explains how she gets through the sport that she loves with all its pressure. The expectations of the reporters are described. The worlds that Michelle went to are in this extraordinary book. Michelle Kwan is a wonderful ice skater. She gets through the building pressure in the sport with help from her support group.
Michelle Kwan loves figure skating. She has loved it since her older brother, by four years, joined an ice hockey team when he was nine. She would easily learn moves and then want to move on. When she got older she was told not to go into the senior tryouts while her coach was away, but she went to the competition and was advanced to the hardest level. Since she always wanted to move on, she quickly moved up, but her support group stayed with her all the way.
Michelle Kwan's support group was an asset to her winnings. Her support group consisted of her family who always told her to "work hard, be yourself, and have fun." When they noticed she wasn't doing this they would remind he, but they were careful not to put pressure on her. Her family showed her where her flaws were and gave her support when she was no doing her best, allowing her to do better every day.
"The pressure was on, and I liked it. Correction: I loved it (page 73)," explains Michelle Kwan when she was competing for her first time at worlds. She placed eighth that year. Worlds were her favorite competition, although sometimes she didn't do her best there. When people were expecting everything from her there, she would fall short, but when nobody was paying attention, she would do her best.
` Michelle Kwan learned many things. For one, she learned that she needed to work hard, be herself, and have fun. When she wasn't having fun, she noticed and she'd always do worse. She learned to appreciate everything. Her perspective of the sport needed to change after a while, so she adjusted. Nobody is flawless, but with the right help you can become as close to perfect as you can.
Great book from a great champion! November 16, 2004
Fruit Loop (Down South)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Hard to believe that Michelle is old enough to have an autobiography, but it's a taste of her great record and the hint of promise yet to come. Ignore the troll review below me - if the person isn't a fan of skating, why did he read the book???? Skating champs come and go, but Michelle will be remembered long after she hangs up her skates. Dignified in victory and gracious in "defeat" (since when are Olympic silver and bronze medals a loss????), she exemplifies the word "Champion" both on and off the ice. A must-have for Michelle's fans and for fans of the sport.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 58
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