A brief but nonetheless impressive sports history that is too often overlooked.
The lamentably untold story of how basketball made its way from peach baskets in all-White YMCAs to dance halls in Black American neighborhoods, then to everywhere else in the world.
Today, the ubiquity of Black and brown faces on basketball courts can be easily taken for granted, but the origins of the sport looked noticeably different when James Naismith purportedly first invented the game in 1891. Moore’s succinct and musical prose pairs well with Ollivierre’s dynamic, movement-focused illustrations to outline a rich history of the sport’s growth in popularity due to the unique circumstances of the early 20th century. Big-city dance halls and ballrooms provided a perfect venue for Black participation in a sport that had previously been exclusive to Whites-only colleges and gymnasiums; a Chicago team was even named after the Savoy Ballroom, where it played. Before it wraps up with the NBA’s transition into an integrated league with the year of its formation in 1949, this book does an excellent job of celebrating the legacies of a few of the Black players, teams, and contributors to the early days of basketball. Readers will appreciate the connections drawn to the sport today, and if they look closely, they may even see some familiar faces in the art.
A brief but nonetheless impressive sports history that is too often overlooked. (player profiles, additional resources) (Informational picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8075-5271-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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