title: Jesse Owens: Young Record Breaker (Childhood of Famous Americans)
author:  M.M. Eboch 
description: Chris Eboch is the author of 12 books for young people. Her<i> Haunted</i> series follows a brother and sister who travel with their parents' ghost hunter TV show. The kids try to help the ghosts, while keeping their activities secret from meddling grownups. <i>The Ghost on the Stairs</i> is set at a Colorado hotel haunted by a ghost bride from the 1880s who is waiting for her missing husband to return. <i>The Riverboat Phantom</i> features a steamboat pilot still trying to prevent a long-ago disaster. In <i>The Knight in the Shadows,</i> a Renaissance French squire protects a sword on display at a New York City museum.<br /> <br /> Her other books include <i>The Well of Sacrifice</i>, a middle grade Mayan adventure, used in many schools, and two inspirational biographies in Simon &amp; Schuster's Childhood of Famous Americans series, <i>Jesse Owens: Young Record Breaker </i>and<i> Milton Hershey: Young Chocolatier</i>, written under the name M.M. Eboch<i>. </i><i><span></span></i><br /> <br /> <span>Read book excerpts on her website at chriseboch.com or visit her "Write Like a Pro! A Free Online Writing Workshop" blog at chriseboch.blogspot.com/.</span>
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  1: THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN THE WORLD
  
  
  
  
  
  Even the fulminating racists on the far side of the police barriers were
  temporarily awed into silence by their first sight of the Champ as he stepped
  nimbly – lepidopterously – from the bus on to the pavement in front of Belfast
  City Hall. He was bigger than ordinary men, physically, of course, but there
  was an aura about him too. Ten years past his prime, heavier, greyer and with
  what was rumoured to be early onset Parkinson’s, this was still the most
  famous man on the face of the Earth. He was wearing Adidas trainers, a red
  tracksuit and sunglasses. He was flanked by two Nation of Islam handlers in
  dark jackets and bow ties, and a pace behind them was the Reverend Jesse
  Jackson, a celebrity in America, but a largely unknown figure here.
  
  
  
  
  
  The Champ ascended the dais and the crowds surged forward to get a better
  look. And in cop think: the better for some nutter to get a bead on him – _to
  throw a bottle or a brick, or to line up a concea