Magnificent Mary: How India's Mary Kom Became a Boxing Champion

A lyrical picture book biography of India's boxing champion Mary Kom--a young girl who followed her insticts and left her beloved village and family to pursue a career that would take her farther from home than she ever imagined.



Mangte Chungnejang Kom (Mary Kom for short) was born to a poor family of tenant farmers in the tiny village of Kangathei, in Manipur, India. Before and after school, Mary hauls bags of rice and buckets of water, and she plows rice fields with water buffalo. Despite her small frame, Mary is incredibly strong, and she dreams of becoming rich and famous like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, the martial arts stars who she watches on her small TV. She longs to lift her family out of poverty.



When her athletic talents are finally noticed and an opportunity to leave her beloved village for a career in sports arises, she uses her homegrown grit and determination to fight her way through gender, size, and class stereotypes. Ingeniously told in the format of a ten-round boxing match, Magnificent Mary is the story of a small girl from a small village who went on to become a national hero and India's first ever female boxing star.