I am Jackie Robinson

November 1, 2014
Baseball's No. 42 strikes out.Even as a babe in his mother's arms, Robinson is depicted wearing his Brooklyn Dodgers baseball cap in this latest entry in the Ordinary People Change the World series. He narrates his childhood alongside cartoon panels that show him as an expert runner and thrower. Racism and poverty are also part of his growing up, along with lessons in sharing and courage. Incredibly, the Negro Leagues are not mentioned beyond a passing reference to "a black team" with a picture of the Kansas City Monarchs next to their team bus (still looking like a child in the illustration, Robinson whines, "Gross! Is this food or goo?"). In 1946, Branch Rickey signs him to play for the Dodgers' farm team, and the rest, as they say, is history. Robinson concludes his story with an exhortation to readers to be brave, strong and use their "power to do what's right. / Use that power for a cause that you believe in." Meltzer writes his inspirational biography as a first-person narrative, which risks being construed and used as an autobiography-which it is not. The digitally rendered cartoon illustrations that show Robinson as a perpetual child fall sadly short of capturing his demeanor and prowess. A memorable life-a forgettable presentation. (photographs, timeline, sources, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 3-6)

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November 1, 2014

K-Gr 3-This title highlighting events from baseball star Jackie Robinson's life is a preachy, moralistic account of courage. Its sentimentality and sugary-sweetness are a throwback to motivational tales of a century ago. Meltzer is highly selective in his presentation. Facts, including names, dates, and places, are few and far between, and the theme of bravery overrides all else. Meltzer assumes readers have a basic knowledge of baseball, and many terms are not defined. Eliopoulos's cartoonish illustrations are corny and, as Jackie is always shown as a small child (a characteristic of this series), border on disrespectful. This book isn't complete or thorough enough for use as a biography, and the perky tone will likely cause eye-rolling among readers and listeners. There are many other more informative, better written books on Robinson that also emphasize the themes of courage and racial equality, such as Cathy Goldberg Fishman's When Jackie and Hank Met (Marshall Cavendish, 2012), a picture book that parallels the lives of Robinson and Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, and April Jones Prince's easy reader Jackie Robinson: He Led the Way (Penguin, 2007).-Ann W. Moore, Schenectady County Public Library, NY

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2015
Grades 1-3 The latest installment in the Ordinary People Change the World series profiles Jackie Robinson, the baseball player who famously broke the color barrier in 1946. In a strange quirk, young Jackie tells his own story but appears throughout as a child, even when wearing his eventual Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. And while it looks a little odd to see little Jackie playing against a field of adult players, the singular perspective speaks directly to the book's child audience. Indeed, with an eternally young narrator, comic-style illustrations, word-balloon dialogue, and a compact trim size, this immediacy is the key to the success of the whole series. The story concludes with Jackie holding his plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame and telling other children of the mantle that comes with power and the power that comes from bravery. A brief time line with photos concludes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)