Wilma Rudolph was a wonder. Although partially...

Wilma Rudolph was a wonder. Although partially paralyzed by polio as a child, she nevertheless managed to transform herself, through nerve and determination, into a world-class runner, becoming the first woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. In Wilma Unlimited, Kathleen Krull (a contributor to these pages) demonstrates that Rudoph actually triumphed over three obstacles: not only the crippling illness, but also growing up African American in the segregated South of the 1940s and competing at what was then considered a man’s sport. Caldecott medalist David Diaz contributes richly colored, stylized paintings that have the look of wood carvings. Both the text and the pictures are splendid celebrations of an inspiring life.

“Words once spoken are like little dybbuks,” Erica Silverman warns in Gittel’s Hands and, indeed, the boastful words of Yakov the Water-Carrier bring all manner of trouble to his daughter Gittel until a miraculous visit from the prophet Elijah sets things right. Silverman’s own words magically transform the traditional “Rumpelstiltskin” into a Passover story set in a long-ago shtetl at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. Artist Deborah Nourse Lattimore contributes her magic to the Chagall-like illustrations she has painted to capture the spirit of a story that, though newly written, has the memorable eloquence of folklore.

In Storm Boy, author-illustrator Paul Owen Lewis has created an original hero tale that embraces folk traditions from the Haida people of the Pacific Northwest. The story is simple: A chief’s son, fishing alone, is capsized in a storm and finds himself washed ashore “under a strange sky.” He is welcomed by a race of giants who teach him their songs and dances and then magically return him to his home. The real magic here is in the full-page art that Lewis has created to expand his story. Richly colored and filled with folk motifs, the pictures look as if they have been carved in wood like totemic images.

A similar note from author Alice McLerran explains that her new book, The Year of the Ranch, is based on a real story from her family’s past. The year is 1919; Papa has decided to uproot Mama and the four girls and transplant them to a homestead in the Arizona desert. The brave venture is ultimately overwhelmed by hardship, but while it lasts, it’s a wonderful dream, lovingly re-created by McLerran’s words and Kimberly Bulcken Root’s beautifully realized pencil and watercolor pictures.

Rough Sketch: Beginning, Jamaican author James Berry’s poem about an artist sketching ideas for a landscape, is as rich in images as the drawings that artist Robert Florczak has borrowed from his sketchbooks to accompany the words. The resulting combination of words and pictures is a thought-provoking and imagination-stimulating meditation on the creative process.

* MICHAEL CART will moderate a panel entitled “How Adult Is Young Adult?” at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday, April 21, at 3 p.m.

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WILMA UNLIMITED, By Kathleen Krull . Illustrated by David Diaz (Harcourt Brace: $16)

GITTEL’S HANDS, By Erica Silverman . Illustrated by Deborah Nourse Lattimore (BridgeWater: $14.95

STORM BOY, By Paul Owen Lewis (Beyond Words Publishing: $14.95)

THE YEAR OF THE RANCH, By Alice McLerran . Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root (Viking: $14.99)

ROUGH SKETCH: Beginning, By James Berry . Illustrated by Robert Florczak (Harcourt Brace: $18)