Promises to Keep

Starred review from February 9, 2004
In this photo biography, Robinson (Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By
) offers an affectionate profile of her father who, she writes, "taught me to flip pancakes, hit a baseball, question political leaders, solve problems, and keep promises." The author's concise history of race relations in the United States enables youngsters to understand the underpinnings of the "segregated world" into which Robinson was born and the racism and injustices he encountered throughout his private and professional life. Especially intriguing is the author's incisive explanation of why her father was selected in 1947 as the individual to "pioneer the integration of Major League Baseball"; her discussion provides insight into the man's abilities and determination on and off the field. The volume's abundance of family photographs and reproductions of Robinson's letters to his wife and children amplify the highly personal nature of the narrative. The author notes that her parents encouraged her and her brothers to "measure our lives by the impact we had on other people's lives." Here she clearly, often eloquently, gauges the enormous impact Jackie Robinson had on so many lives as father, husband, athlete and crusader for justice and equality. Ages 9-12.

Starred review from March 1, 2004
Gr 4-7 -In captivating words and pictures, Robinson chronicles the life of her legendary father. She weaves historical events into the story of one of baseball's greatest players, revealing how they shaped his life. Her text, combined with numerous black-and-white archival and family photographs, reproductions of newspaper headlines, magazine pages, and letters, illustrates Jackie Robinson's journey from childhood to the moment that he integrated major league baseball to his life as a businessman and civil rights spokesperson. In addition to personal details, this intimate biographical sketch and authentic glimpse into the life of a great African American provides information on the post-Civil War world, race relations, and the struggle for civil rights. It will inspire readers and enhance character-education units. Pair this first purchase with the author's Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By (Scholastic, 2001).-Tracy Bell, Durham Public Schools, NC

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2004
Gr. 3-7. There are numerous biographies about Robinson available for young people, but none have this book's advantage of family intimacy. In a personal account, Robinson's daughter, Sharon, describes her father's youth, his rise to become major-league baseball's first African American player, and his involvement in the civil rights movement. Sharon Robinson is an education executive for major-league baseball, and she writes about the sport and her father's life with the same immediate familiarity. It's her seamless blend of history and family story, though, that distinguishes this title. Through particular events in her father's life, the author makes the realities of a segregated society immediate: when her father first showed up for the Brooklyn Dodgers' spring training, for example, he was housed and fed separately from his white teammates. She also includes photographs of racially motivated death threats sent to the Robinson home. Robinson's emphasis on her parents' strong values reiterates some of the material in her previous title for youth, " Jackie's Nine "(2001), but her private view of her father's accomplishments, placed within the context of American sports and social history, makes for absorbing reading. An excellent selection of family and team photographs and other materials, including her parents' love letters in their own handwriting, illustrate this fine tribute.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)