Strong Man: The Story of Charles Atlas

To the one star reviewers saying this is an "inaccurate biography" or that it doesn't have all the official Atlas training methods...are you serious? You really have to be a special kind of stupid to see this cover and think it's anything other than a children's book. If you're after a cool little story for kids with some nice suggestions to eat right and exercise, this is a great book.

Not quite factual on EVERY point in Charles' life, but an entertaining book and good introduction to him for kids, so I give it a thumbs up!

Great book poor shipping and packaging came in bent. Was for a friends baby shower

Charles Atlas' life was a very inspiring one. And here you have it written for children. The paintings ilustrating the text are kind of funny, which I like. The text even includes quotes from Atlas and gives only the necessary information. It includes 4 exercises for children to perform and encourages them to eat right and sleep well. I as an adult enjoyed it. I am sure my nephew will love it! Congratulations to Meghan McCarthy on this fine book.

I am the father of two kids. I bought them some six books to read during their summer vacation, and this was the one both went to read first. They loved it and began, on their own, to exercise as Atlas did in the book... So you could probably say this book does its job as a fun introduction to the benefits of exercising and healthy living for kids.The book is nicely written and illustrated in color, and that certainly captures the attention of younger readers.Now, for a biography, even one aimed at children, I believe historical accuracy to be a relevant issue. To establish some legitimacy to this critical review, I should mention that I've done in-depth research on body-weight and isometric exercises, as well as on Charles Atlas and other proponents of exercising, and I will cite a relevant source that you can easily check for yourself further below.I was surprised and disapointed to find out that the book is based almost exclusively on the marketing hype that Charles Atlas used for promoting his Dynamic Tension course. That course is a mix of exercises and tips for healthy eating and living. The main appeal of the exercises themselves is that they supposedly developed Charles Atlas from a weak, skinny kid into a Hercules-like figure, all without using weights, dumbbells or barbells (hence the name of the course), and in only 15 minutes a day.The accuracy of the claims in that marketing material is widely disputed by serious sports historians. There is significant evidence, including written material by Charles Atlas himself, that Atlas was never a weakling, and that he successfully developed his body by lifting heavy weights in conjunction with body-weight exercises. Also repeated in the book is the story of how Atlas created his exercises by watching animals at the zoo; according to his own account he in fact developed his exercises by the more mundane method of going to the gym and learning from others.There are many other fictional accounts in this book, which you can easily identify for instance by reading a long and well-written biographical article, written by Charles Atlas himself in Physical Culture Magazine - November 1921, freely reproduced online at the Sandow Plus website. That article was written years before Atlas marketed his course, and is free from the hype and fiction that surrounded the course. (Just google the title of that article, "Building the Physique of a Greek God by Angelo Siciliano" - that was Charles Atlas' real name).The real story of that man is interesting enough to deserve an accurate account. Unfortunately you will not find it in this book.Still, even with the fiction, this is not a bad way to introduce your kids to physical exercise and healthy living. If you want your kids to be introduced to that world, this is one way to go.As an introduction to exercising for kids, the book gets 7 stars out of 10. As a biography, 1 star out of 10 due to all the inaccuracies and the lack of adequate research by the author. Average 4 stars out of 10.Thanks for reading - hope this helps.

don't worry the dude isn't pink on the front cover

I purchased a copy for my grandson. I am sure that he will like it and it is a great influence.

Though artist/illustrator Meghan McCarthy possesses many skills, there is one in particular that I feel eclipses the lot. My thinking is that anyone can write, anyone can draw, and anyone can put the two together. But when it comes to non-fiction picture books, almost nobody finds the right kind of fun/wacky subject matter out there that she does. Whether it's 1938 The War of the Worlds broadcast as found in  Aliens Are Coming!  or the story of  City Hawk: The Story of Pale Male , McCarthy's tastes run to the eclectic. And undoubtedly, the most eclectic of all would have to be "Strong Man". I mean, who sits down and decides to write a picture book on the life of Charles Atlas? It's absurd! Unheard of! Ridiculous! It just happens to also be one of the most amusing non-fiction books for kids to come out this year.His name was Angelo Siciliano, an Italian immigrant who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Not a naturally tough kid, Angelo was your typical small fry and weights did nothing for him. Yet by creating his own fitness routine, Angelo (who took the name Charles Atlas not long thereafter) grew strong AND had a great product to sell. He stressed good eating, good exercise, and a minimum amount of laziness in his students. People around the world benefited from his techniques and to this day, "He is still considered `The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man.'" Back matter to this book includes exercises for kids and some additional information on what we know about the life of Charles Atlas.It's not true that an author is only as strong as their material. A true author can make gold out of the dullest life just so long as they've the right take and style. But to my mind, when it comes to children's books, biographies are best when they're more than halfway interesting. I'm sure that the inventor of the lint removal rolls was a great person, but would you really want to force your kid to read a biography about that person? Then you consider Charles Atlas. He's just such a huge part of our culture. Millions of people have seen, in one form or another, the old bully-kicks-sand-in-the-face-of-the-weakling storyline. Few of us have ever thought to explore the man behind the image. The fact that he led a lovely life and that his works just happen to have something to say to our kids today (exercising and eating well = good) is just a nice plus.The other day I'm sitting at my Reference Desk in the library and a kid wants a book on "real" aliens. Say what you will about my lovely library branch, we're not exactly overflowing with children's books on this topic. But I have a quick brain flash and run and get the child McCarthy's  Aliens Are Coming! . Even if it's not precisely what he was looking for, the kid's eyes light up. "Look, Mom! It's like The Simpsons!" McCarthy's people are not, in fact, like The Simpsons aside from the big rounded white eyes. But far be it from me to discourage the kid. The fact of the matter is, children love McCarthy's style. There's something genial and downright friendly about it. Her thick paints and use of shadow and color catch the eye. As for the pages themselves, McCarthy likes to break up the images with an array of variegated styles. Sometimes you're looking at individual panels with cartoon speech bubbles. Sometimes you've grand two-page spreads. Sometimes the caption appears in one corner and in the other there are black and white "photos" and letters. A book that wants to retain interest in the youngest of readers needs to know how to grasp the concept of the dynamic image. McCarthy does this perfectly.Rather than have a Bibliography at the back, McCarthy has opted instead to include exercise instructions for kids. In this age of health-consciousness, usually this kind of topics leads to such horrors as Cookie Monsters no longer eating cookies and people like Marc Brown writing preachy diatribes about vegetables as in,  The Gulps . McCarthy's take, in contrast, doesn't feel like it's forcing healthy thoughts into the heads of your kids. The four panels showing a variety of different exercises (with instructions on the side) are accompanied by a subtle message to parents from an occupational therapist on the importance of good exercise. The Author's Note in the back shows a photo of the real Atlas (oh la la indeed) and explains why he was both a good role model and a difficult man to profile biography-wise.Of course this does raise the question of where the Bibliographic sources are. A quick glance at the exercise portions included in lieu of references might seem strange when you first glance at it, but then you look into the information on Atlas out there. As the book makes perfectly clear, Atlas was a self-made man. From his name to his body to his image, Atlas continually changed the stories he told about who he was and where he came from. To research him, McCarthy mostly relied on newspaper articles and old clippings in order to sniff out the most accurate view of Atlas's history. There are bound to be problems associated with researching a man of this stature for a novel, let alone a non-fiction picture book. As it stands, McCarthy's book is inherently reliant on what Atlas told the world about himself. It just so happens that what he told wasn't always easy to keep track of.If 2007 is remembered as anything, I hope it's remembered as the year that strong men were hot hot hot in picture books. After all, Atlas isn't the only fellow who gets his due. There was the remarkable  The Strongest Man in the World  about Canada's Louis Cyr, and numerous circus-related titles like  Who Put the B in the Ballyhoo?  and the re-release of Hilary Knight's,  The Circus is Coming . Men in leopard skins have never been hotter in terms of young `un reading material. The difference here, of course, is that with Atlas you get a great story and a heckuva proponent for exercise that doesn't happen to grate on your nerves. One of the more amusing subjects to crop up in a picture book and a mighty nice package.

great