I met Althea Gibson on the shelves of my local library. I was looking for candidates for a manuscript about people who were successful in life, but not so much in school. The title of the first chapter in her autobiography, “I Always Wanted To Be Somebody,” was “We Weren’t Bad, Just Mischievous.” Since that pretty much describes me, I knew I had to read more. Once I read her story from her point-of-view, I also knew young readers would love hearing about her. It’s important for young people to know about the struggles that go behind the successes, and Althea was quite a saucy girl!

I was fortunate to have both her autobiographies to refer back to, as well as a number of print media sources and some good adult biographies of her. The autobiographies meant the most to me, though. Althea kept excellent records, often quoting from news articles and letters in her own books. Also, I felt if I stayed close to the story the way she told it that I would please Althea. I do want to honor her memory.

I often think about a subject for years. This was the case with Althea. I knew immediately that I wanted to write about her, but it took years to figure out the approach I wanted to take.

They don’t feel that different to me since I do a lot of research for my fictional books and I try to find the great stories in my non-fiction subjects.

Althea’s story is instructive in so many ways. She was pure potential that, if some key people hadn’t noticed, could have been wasted. There are many young talented people today who are not taught the concept of self-discipline. Althea had to learn it, and boy was it hard! But learning to master her anger and control her game took her to the top of her sport and helped her achieve her greatest dream of winning at Wimbledon. Current tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams often mention Althea as the woman who most inspired them in their sport.

A really accomplished artist will not only illustrate the book, but will find ways to deepen the story with other stories that are told visually. I think it’s a testimony to Greg’s skill that the book’s art enhances the themes of the book so well. Surrrounding Althea with a rainbow palette gives her figure the energy and passion that Althea had in real life. The interesting color scheme and the fluidity of the figures also demonstrate how creative energy used properly can make our work transcendent, as in Buddy’s sax playing. When we use our energy in negative ways, it can defeat us. This is in evidence when Althea loses her concentration when she is heckled during a game. So kids don’t just hear about it through the text, they see the energy flying all over the place. It’s fabulous.

I am under contract with Knopf to do another non-fiction book on Tillie Anderson, a champion bicycle racer from the 1890s and I have other manuscripts circulating. I tend to be drawn to either very quirky subjects or to really strong women. Who knows why?

In addition to the picture book, I am working on the second four issues of my literacy comic series Wireman (www.wiremancomics.com) as well as my fourth novel for Knopf.

Simply put, Althea had to break the color barrier in tennis competition. She was the first African American, man or woman, to compete and win at Wimbledon. She had many situations in her life where she was excluded from competitions, denied the right to stay in hotels, and judged unequally. Despite having a fiery temperament in her personal life and as a competitor, Althea handled most of these inequities with the bearing of the future champion she would become. I still don’t understand why she isn’t as celebrated and well-known as Jackie Robinson.

Well, this is first and foremost Althea’s story, but in a larger way, it’s a story about mentors of all kinds. I dearly hope people will give this book to the mentors they know. It still gives me goose bumps when I think about the day Buddy Walker looked at raggedy Althea, running through the streets of Harlem, and saw a future world champion. Behind almost every great person, you will find an inspiring mentor, who saw that greatness before the rest of the world and helped it come to fruition.