I finished reading A View from Saturday and have a new favorite book!  There are so many lessons to be learned from this book.  It would work well with upper elementary and middle school students.  I'm in the process of making a webquest focusing on sea turtles so I was very interested in reading about how working with this endangered species influenced some of the children in the story. 

My next book is We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.  The chapters are called "1st Inning, 2nd Inning" etc.  I have only the 9th Inning left to read.  Baseball is one of my favorite sports so this is an easy, interesting read for me.  Actually, I'm enjoying it much more than I expected.  My husband has been watching me read it and said he would like to read it also before I turn the book back in to the library! 

Although I realized how hard life was for African Americans, We are the Ship points out just how difficult it was.  Many white major league ballplayers began to understand that Negroes were men just like them before the general population did.  As they got to know the players in the Negro League their eyes were opened.  As we know, it was still many, many years before integration and equality became widespread and African Americans were treated like people should be.

I would recommend this book for boys especially.  Reluctant readers would be attracted to this book because of the easy style used to write it.  It is narrated in the personna of a Negro baseball player.  The struggles in the book are similar in many ways to the struggles teenagers go through, at least in their minds.  I don't want to equate the monumental struggles of an entire race to what may seem minor struggles of teens in the big scheme of life.  However, by reading how people in the past dealt with overwhelming odds, some teens may find consolation in trials they face today.

 

 

 

The following video interview with Kadir Nelson, author of the book.  Mr. Nelson tells how the book came to be.  Basically, he was commissioned to paint a picture.  As he was researching the Negro Baseball League before creating his artwork, Mr. Nelson became fascinated with the history of the league.  Instead of one picture, it turned into 40.  This is well worth listening to!  It gives a great understanding of how We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball came to be.