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List Price: $4.99 | | Publisher: Scholastic
Salesrank: 403417
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| Our Price: $4.07 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
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.
Michelle Kwan: My Story - Heart Of A Champion Reviews:
There should be a rule against teenagers writing autobiographies 
2006-11-14 - 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 
2005-10-05 - . 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! 
2004-11-16 - 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.
Michelle Kwan
2003-04-10 - In this book it shows Michelle's life as it goes up and down. She takes us inside her life showing what it's like to be a teenage skater. It's not easy! As she wins more competitions she shines out more and more. Suddenly, the pressure is almost unbearable. Watch her as she falls and gets up again even better then she was before! This book is one you definitely don't want to miss!
Fantastic Book!
2003-02-24 - I loved reading Michelle Kwan's autobiography. I found it to be very imformative, and I learned even more about this very talented figure skater. It was a great book, and it was so cool to find out about Michelle's first competitions, when she first started skating, her feelings about the sport, and her 1998 Olympic story. Another cool thing about this book was that you could flip the pages and see Michelle Kwan do a triple Lutz. It was cool! I would reccomend this book to any fan of figure skating or Michelle Kwan. Excellent book!
