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Book Reviews on...

A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team by Adam Lazarre-White (narrator) & Arshay Cooper
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A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

by Adam Lazarre-White (narrator) & Arshay Cooper

Recommendations from our site

“The wonderful thing that Arshay says is that many of the students just turned up to find out about the team because they offered pizza. The draw was a free pizza lunch. Then they recruited these athletes and trained them. They came from very different backgrounds, with tremendous challenges for being on the team, for showing up. But it worked. They were champions and many overcame their disadvantages—because they were so satisfied with this accomplishment that it served as a stepping-stone for many of them to change the way their lives had been going. What’s interesting is that this is not a new book. The reason it came out as an audiobook is that there was just a documentary made about the team, of their coming together again and rowing for the Chicago Sprints and about where their lives took them. It’s about how much the training and the motivation that came from the coach and the sponsor of the team helped change their lives, including Arshay Cooper who has gone on helping young people get motivated and get out of the lives they want to change. I think this is a beautiful representation and inspiration for believing that that can happen.” Read more...

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Robin Whitten, Journalist

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