A gesture toward perseverance that feels more like a bullet-point pamphlet than a story.
Not even a ban on women’s soccer could stop Lily Parr from playing.
Born in England in 1905, Lily Parr, a white woman, learned how to play growing up with her brothers and is credited with being one of the first stars of women’s soccer. A left winger with the Dick, Kerr Ladies team, Parr had the strongest kick in the country, helping to power her team in competition against men’s teams—whom they often beat. Throughout World War I, women’s teams played against one another and sent their profits to aid soldiers. After the war, in 1921, the Football Association (this British import assumes readers’ familiarity with the organization) banned women from playing on their fields, a ruling that would stay in place until 1971. Despite these restrictions, Parr played soccer for 31 years, and in 2019, the National Football Museum in England erected a statue in her honor. Dale’s book provides an initial glimpse into Parr’s life yet leaves many holes. Readers who want to know more about what drove her or her life off the field will be left wondering. Coroa’s cartoonlike illustrations are vibrant and match Dale’s pacing. Facts about soccer and Parr cover the endpapers, respectively, and basic facts are interspersed throughout the illustrations as well. An author’s note ends the book, but no backmatter or sources are included.
A gesture toward perseverance that feels more like a bullet-point pamphlet than a story. (timeline) (Picture book/biography. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-84886-645-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Maverick Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.
Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.
Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
It’s an often-told story, but the author is still in a position to give it a unique perspective.
The author of Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America (2004) tells her father’s tale again, for younger readers.
Though using a less personal tone this time and referring to herself in the third person, Robinson still devotes as much attention to his family life, youth and post-baseball career as she does to his achievements on the field. Writing in short sentences and simple language, she presents a clear picture of the era’s racial attitudes and the pressures he faced both in the military service and in baseball—offering plenty of clear reasons to regard him not just as a champion athlete, but as a hero too. An early remark about how he ran with “a bunch of black, Japanese, and Mexican boys” while growing up in Pasadena is insensitively phrased, and a sweeping claim that by 1949 “[t]he racial tension was broken” in baseball is simplistic. Nevertheless, by and large her account covers the bases adequately. The many photos include an admixture of family snapshots, and a closing Q-and-A allows the author to announce the imminent release of a new feature film about Robinson.
It’s an often-told story, but the author is still in a position to give it a unique perspective. (Biography. 8-10)Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-54006-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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