Exploring Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson
Cover photo for Jackie and Me: A Baseball Card Adventure
Jackie and Me: A Baseball Card Adventure by Dan Gutman

With his ability to travel through time by using baseball cards, Joe goes back to 1947 to meet Jackie Robinson, turning into a black boy in the process.

Cover photo for Listening for Leroy
Listening for Leroy by Betsy Hearne

Growing up in rural Alabama in the 1950s, ten-year-old Alice has no one to talk to but Leroy, the black farm hand, but when Alice's doctor father moves the family to Tennessee, she has trouble fitting in and she sorely misses Leroy.

Cover photo for In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Lord

In 1947, a Chinese child comes to Brooklyn where she becomes Americanized at school, in her apartment building, and by her love for baseball.

Cover photo for The Journal of Biddy Owens, the Negro Leagues
The Journal of Biddy Owens, the Negro Leagues by Walter Dean Myers

Teenager Biddy Owens' 1948 journal about working for the Birmingham Black Barons includes the games and the players, racism the team faces from New Orleans to Chicago, and his family's resistance to his becoming a professional baseball player. Includes a historical note about the evolution of the Negro Leagues.

Finding Buck McHenry by Alfred Slote

Eleven-year-old Jason, believing the school custodian Mack Henry to be Buck McHenry, a famous pitcher from the old Negro League, tries to enlist him as a coach for his Little League team by revealing his identity to the world.

Cover photo for Coco Grimes
Coco Grimes by Mary Stolz

Eleven-year-old Thomas talks his grandfather into driving all the way across Florida to meet Coco Grimes, an old man who remembers Negro League baseball, but the actual encounter proves to be bittersweet.

Cover photo for Red Rose Box
Red Rose Box by Brenda Woods

In 1953, Leah Hopper dreams of leaving the poverty and segregation of her home in Sulphur, Louisiana, and when Aunt Olivia sends train tickets to Los Angeles as part of her tenth birthday present, Leah gets a first taste of freedom.