Promises to Keep

Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America
by Sharon Robinson
Scholastic Press, 2004

Genre: Sports Non-Fiction, Biography, African American History

Honors:

• Book Links 09/01/04
• Booklist 02/15/04
• Booklist starred 02/15/04
• Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 04/01/04
• Five Owls 07/01/05
• Horn Book 10/01/04
• Kirkus Reviews 01/15/04
• Publishers Weekly starred 02/09/04
• School Library Journal starred 03/01/04
• Wilson's Children 10/01/10
• Wilson's Junior High School 01/09/10

Review: With loving praise, family photographs, and a personal interpretation of Jackie Robinson's life, his daughter Sharon recounts some of her favorite memories of the man who became the first African American baseball player to be recruited to a National League team and be inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame. Sharon Robinson describes the history and climate of the United States up to the development of the Civil Rights movement, and she explains the somewhat reluctant role her father played in the movement to de-segregate the blacks from the whites in public spaces and in professional sports by playing in areas where he was threatened, boycotted, and heckled based on his skin color, and by refusing to lose his temper and strike back at those who insulted him.

Opinion: This book is tender, touching, and powerful. I loved how Sharon Robinson tied her father's work in professional baseball to the spirit that prevailed in the 60s to end segregation in America and improve the public's image of African Americans by bringing them into public arenas with white Americans to cheer for an African American pitcher. Her personal recollections bring Jackie Robinson to life not only as a national figure but as a model father, man of religion, and hero, whose struggles young boys and girls can identify with.

Ideas: Aside from being a great introductory resource for the Civil Rights movement, this book has an excellent index in the back and would be a good tool students can use to practice their index-referencing skills.