The Horn Book Guide

SPORTS

Speno, Andrew

The Great American Foot Race

176 pp. | Boyds/Calkins | April, 2017 | Trade ISBN 978-1-62979-602-4 $17.95

(4) YA Speno chronicles a first-of-its-kind footrace from Los Angeles to New York born of the intersections between professional sports, infrastructure development, and the public's appetite for spectacle in the Roaring Twenties. The epic, multidimensional tale has built-in appeal, but the telling is often disjointed; some racialized descriptions of competitors (e.g., "Part Cherokee, Andy seemed to have running in the blood") detract from the whole. Reading list, websites. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross