The Champion in All of Us

The Champion in All of Us is an educational comic book with a rich and compelling story. Designed for 3rd and 4th grade students, it is a reading program with character building content. It addresses such issues as resisting peer pressure, coping with teasing, the roles practice and cooperation have on success, and how being unique can be an asset in life.

The story follows a group of friends preparing for a Field Day competition against other schools. They learn how to work together, make up their own minds, and respect others, even when they disagree. They find out that when people respect each other's differences and work together, everybody wins!

Although the comic book can stand on its own, it is accompanied by a substantial teacher's guide, which contains eleven lessons. Three of these are mainly content oriented, five are mainly reading oriented, and three incorporate both.

Educators report that the book is an excellent resource for teachers and/or counselors dealing with issues such as friendship, bullying, teamwork, and cultural diversity.

Numerous classes have used this story in creative ways. For example, some have turned it into a classroom play. This is a particularly effective for students who respond better to non-traditional approaches to learning.

"A Champion is someone who is the best at what they do. Since we are all different, we each have a chance to be a champion in our own lives. When we make our own choices and respect others who are different, we free the champion in all of us!"

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“To present this lesson to my classes, I asked for volunteers to read this story as a play. Before class, I had highlighted the speaking part of each character in separate books. This way, each student was visually prompted when it was his/her turn to speak. The audience helped by taking turns reading the introduction to the story and by being good listeners. The material presented a fictional plot that could actually happen in today's schools. The dialogue and realistic nature of the story kept all of my 5th grade students engaged from the beginning to end.

After the play, I put students in small groups and had them discuss the good and bad character traits of the main character and the ways each one of he supporting characters showed examples of being a leader and a follower. These were activities that came from your activity guide. Each group then came up with verbal responses to the scenarios in “It's Up to You,” the last page of the comic book, which again gives very realistic situations that could happen to today's kids. All my students enjoyed these activities almost as much as the actual play.

Thank you for providing quality, high-interest materials to our schools. My classes had fun while being reinforced on the concept that everyone deserves to be treated with respect.”

Maxi Kolb, Guidance Counselor
Lowes Elementary School
Lowes, Kentucky


“The lesson that was discussed in your booklet, The Champion in All of Us, is something that is baldy needed with many middle school-aged students. The format that was used proved to be very successful with my students. I teach deaf and hard of hearing students whose first language is American Sign Language. They often struggle with reading. The visual comic book format made it much easier for my students to follow and comprehend.

The students relly enjoyed this story and at the same time learned a very valuable lesson that will help them be more responsible citizens. They enjoyed the story so much that they are planning to perform a skit based on this story.”

Lori Mohan, Teacher
Kentucky School for the Deaf
Danville, Kentucky