This captivating look at the race to break the four-minute mile in the early 1950s focuses on the three top contenders: Roger Bannister of England, Wes Santee of the United States, and John Landy of Australia. Bascomb deftly follows each of their personal stories, as well as their growing awareness of one another, in an era when being in different parts of the world sometimes meant waiting two months to get an update on a time or race result from elsewhere—something that would be shared in seconds today. In a book as much about personal determination and grit as sport and a slice of history, each of the three runners had different styles, personalities, and challenges. Bannister didn’t meet his own or others’ expectations at the 1952 Olympics and committed himself to doing better; a full-time medical student and researcher, he often trained at night, the only free time he had. Santee had a difficult childhood; he succeeded on the track at the University of Kansas, but off the track he butted heads with the AAU. Landy was also a full-time student whose racing season in Australia was opposite those of Bannister’s and Santee’s. All the while, the world was watching, as this fast-paced, breathless account reveals the intense international interest in breaking the record, as well as in the rare head-to-head battles of two or more of the men, which garnered the same kind of attention as the Super Bowl or Olympics do today.   (Age 12 and older)