Bibliography
42: The
Jackie Robinson Story. Dir. Brian
Helgeland. 2013. Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, 2013. Film.
Nelson, Kadir. We
Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. New York, NY: Jump at the
Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, 2008. Print.
Nilsen, Allen Pace, James
Blasingame, Kenneth L. Donelson, and Don L. Nilsen. Literature
for Today's Young Adults. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.
Summary
This nonfiction book is written to tell
the story of Negro League baseball, the time during segregation when
African-American baseball players had their own league. It is a passionate book
written in nine innings (chapters) with full page illustrations. We Are the
Ship describes the formation of the league, travel conditions, personalities
and strengths of the players, and the ultimate acceptance of African-American
players into the major leagues. The full page pictures in the book convey the
emotion of the time, the strength of the players, and the excitement of the
games.
Analysis
“We are the ship; all else
the sea.”—Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League
Nelson shows the “strength and
resilience of the human spirit” through Negro League Baseball (81). We Are the Ship features the
unsung heroes who had a deep love of the game which helped them to overcome
serious obstacles brought on by segregation.
The chapters are organized into 9
innings with an extra inning for follow-up notes. The book opens with gripping
quotes from the players about the game. It is written in a conversational tone,
as if one of the old-timers is sitting in front of the reader telling a story
about how it was.
Nelson puts a face on segregation and
racial discrimination in the sports leagues during segregation. The phrase “It
was downright shameful” was used multiple times in describing the treatment of
African-Americans for the duration of the league. He also goes into the
politics of money and the “us versus them” mentality in sportsmanship with the
non-negro leagues. However, it all comes back to the camaraderie of the players
and their supreme love of the game.
This nonfiction book is very factual,
thorough, and well rounded. It features a historical perspective of baseball in
general while also layering in how the Negro League was unique. For example,
Nelson describes that this was before all the safety equipment to protect their
heads from the ball and shins from the shoe spikes. He also described the
day-to-day living conditions of eating and housing between games, and working
conditions in a segregated nation. An interesting addition is a chapter on
Latin America where men from the Negro Leagues would play in the off season.
Nelson also provides a list of Negro Major Leaguers, Hall of Famers, an authors
note, bibliography, filmography, and endnotes.
The illustrations support the facts by
featuring the key players and help the reader visualize all the different
fields where the players competed. There are many names and places in the book,
so having a visual of the person helps to make an emotional connection with the
players.
Nelson goes into great detail about the
personalities of the players and strife of having to compete on a secondary
level as a Negro ball player. Nelson does a great job of presenting both the
good and the bad personalities of the men in the League. He also mentions
previous jobs they had had before becoming involved in baseball. For example,
some men were working menial jobs and others were college educated. He presents
the whole spectrum in an unbiased way.
One weakness is the density of the
text. While this book is at the reading level of the intended audience, Nelson
uses large, full pages of small text throughout the book. This would probably
not be very engaging for a younger (third to fifth grade) audience. However,
this may have been a concession to maintain the style of the book. The
illustrations take as much of the focus as the text. A compromise would be to
add focus boxes to help highlight the main themes and people in each chapter.
Overall, I would recommend this book to
a young YA reader because it will leave a mark on their impression of the
beginnings of baseball in the United States, the impact of segregation for a
large part of the population, and ultimately, the love for a game.
As a side note, although this book is written for a YA
audience, parents might be interested in a similar story in the Baseball movie 42:
The Jackie Robinson Story (rated PG-13). Jackie Robinson was the first
African-American baseball player in the major leagues and paved the way for all
later players. We Are the Ship features a full chapter on Jackie
Robinson.
