Dwyane Wade steps up under pressure. The Miami Heat guard dazzles fans with his acrobatic moves and fearlessly takes the ball to the basket. And when the game is on the line, he can hit the big jump shot. It has taken Dwyane just a few seasons to become one of the NBA’s best.

Snowboarder Shaun White did a rarely seen move in his first qualifying halfpipe run at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy: he fell. But the nearly perfect athlete nailed his second run, then crushed the competition in the finals to win Olympic gold. Stateside, Shaun is also a world-class skateboarder and a rising celebrity.

As a top NBA point guard for the Phoenix Suns, Steve Nash keeps opponents on their toes with lightning-fast moves and clever passes. But Steve’s NBA career almost didn’t take off, as he went unnoticed in high school.

Scrambling left, then right, quarterback Michael Vick looks downfield and rushes forty yards—touchdown! Growing up in a tough neighborhood, Vick used hard work and football to avoid trouble, and went on to become one of the NFL’s most talented quarterbacks.

This revised volume in the Amazing Athletes series is a fun and readable biography for young readers of Eldrick Tont (Tiger) Woods, an American golfer widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time.

Born in Hawaii and brought up for a time in Indonesia, Barack Obama graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science and a specialty in international relations. He worked as a community organizer in some of Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods, helping church groups create job-training programs, before going on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and served as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.

How does a boy from Long Beach, Indiana, grow up to become the Chief Justice of the United States? Through a lifetime of remarkable achievements. John Roberts Jr. graduated first in his high school class, finished college at Harvard University in only three years, received high honors at Harvard law school, and became a well-respected attorney and judge.

Do you know… • whose face is on the penny? • how slavery ended in the United States? • what jobs Abraham Lincoln had before he became president

How old was the Dalai Lama when he became the leader of Tibet? Why did the Dalai Lama leave Tibet to live in India? When did the Dalai Lama win the Nobel Peace Prize?

An introduction to the life of Elizabeth Blackwell and how she demonstrated the value of hard work throughout her life and the character trait of industriousness