Shaquille O'Neal: A Biography

The first two sentences of Shaquille O'Neal: A Biography brought a vivid scene to mind, so I checked the book out of the library. Perhaps I could quickly picture a cold, dreary winter day in Newark, New Jersey, because I have been in Newark on cold, dreary winter days. My first surprise when I got the book home, was that the biography was written as part of a series of books to meet high school and public library demands. The "Series Forward" explains that the books were created specifically to be used by students in conjunction with school requirements and "curriculum relevance". The series is meant to be fact filled, yet "fun to read." A list of recent titles in the series of biographies include Saddam Hussein, Condoleezza Rice, Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Elvis Presley.

Greenwood Press (GP) of Westport, Connecticut and London are publishers of the Greenwood Biographies, which are written by various authors. The recent title list also includes people like Chavez, Gandhi, MLK, Jr, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. This gives a sense as to what is approved reading and relevant for today's high school student's studies. Would they find this book "fun to read?" I do not know; I did not. Although GP promises "in-depth inforrmation about the subject's life from birth" right on up to adulthood, I think Shaquille O'Neal: A Biography would be better titled Shaquille O'Neal's Basketball Biography.

There is a brief look at O'Neal's childhood from birth on that cold and dreary winter day, but the book moves swiftly into infomation about the star player's basketball career. Much of the first chapter sounds like something out of a PAD (Problems of American Democracy) text book that put me to sleep when I was a high school student. I found the basketball career just as dull with sentences like: "Game one was a rout by a 112 to 77 score. Shaq had 19, but shot 6 of 16 with seven turnovers." If students enjoy details about how many rebounds O'Neal made or points scored in particular games, they may find the book enjoyable.

In one chapter five sentences are devoted to what Shaq does in his spare time. I would have been interested in the details of his "Shaqsgiving Day", that he held for Orlando, Florida's homeless people. Another chapter devotes five sentences to O'Neal's "apparel and marketing business in Compton". Author, Murry R. Nelson, devoted more words to educating students about the history of welfare, "the fractured black family" and Germany after World War II~where Shaquille's step-father was stationed and Shaq spent his early years~ than about Shaq's providing jobs in a troubled city of high unemployment.

For me, the best part of Shaquille O'Neal: A Biography is the cover: a smiling, Shaq dressed in suit and tie, pointing to the crowd, microphone in his right hand. The book includes 4 pictures: one of O'Neal posed in uniform, one during a game, one with his mother and the last showing a seamstress holding up a pair of his custom made jeans to get an idea his size. Published in 2007 the book was in the library's new non-fiction section. It actually belonged in the section reserved for "students only". The book includes an Appendix: Career Records which lists Shaq's stats from 1993 through 2006. It is 144 pages with an Index, Timeline and Bibliography. If you are interested in Shaquille O'Neal's biography, I suggest checking out one of his auto-biographies; that is what I am going to do.

Shaquille O'Neal: A Biography is available online for $29.95 from Greenwood Publishing Group.