Review Detail

Major Taylor: World Cycling Champion

Kids Nonfiction 675

Little Known Black Athlete

October 08, 2023 (Updated: June 12, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Learning Value

4.0

Starting with a six day cycling reave in Madison Square Gardens, we see the career of athlete Marshall Walter Taylor, known as "Major" because of the garb he often wore while cycling, going back from this pivotal event when he was eighteen years old. In flashbacks, we are told of some of the racism he faced in various races and training opportunities. Since the race lasted six days, Major got very tired and often hallucinated; there was even a pillow strapped to the handlebars so he could rest, which seems like not the greatest idea, especially since helmets for cyclists were unknown then! There were several crashes, but he was able to get up and continue until the last one on day six, after 1,700 miles. He was half an hour from the end of the race, but it was just the start of a fantastic cycling career.

Good Points

This tale is related in Smith's customary well-done verse, and concentrates more on the larger issues of racism through some short mentions of specifics, all while the race is going on. There is a two page spread of background information in prose that I almost wish had been mentioned in the body of the book, but would most certainly have slowed down the fast-paced nature of the race setting. There's also a nice narrative time line as well as a bibliography.

Espinosa's illustrations complement the text, and are filled with lots of motion. There are good details of what clothing people wore during this time period, although Taylor's athletic wear is not all that different in appearance to modern athletic gear. It was probably wool, though, so it's too bad that there are not more descritions of gear and training methods like in McCarthy's Wildest Race Ever, about the 1904 Olympic marathon. I wonder is Taylor also believed that ingesting arsenic would improve endurance?

Picture book biographies about athletes of color are getting somewhat easier to find, and this would be a great title for a budding athlete to read, along with Reid and Freeman's Althea Gibson: The Story of Tennis' Fleet of Foot Girl, Tate's Pigskins to Paintbrushes: The Story of Football-Playing Artist Ernie Barnes, Smith's Victory. Stand!, or Tavares' Growing Up Pedro.