GLENN BURKE, GAME CHANGER

Following up his middle-grade novel A High Five for Glenn Burke (2020), Bildner pens a picture-book biography about a remarkable gay Black baseball player.

A rare “five-tool talent” (he could run, catch, throw, and hit for both average and power), young Glenn Burke was snatched up by the Dodgers, and teammates and fans alike soon delighted in his high-spirited humor and enthusiasm for the team and game they loved. Burke enjoyed a strong rookie season and is credited with inventing the high-five with teammate Dusty Baker. Burke was also a closeted gay athlete, vulnerable to the homophobia of people such as his manager, Tommy Lasorda, who traded Burke mere months after he’d helped get the Dodgers to the World Series. Burke’s story has plenty of sadness—ongoing homophobia, a debilitating car accident, and an HIV diagnosis, which led to his far-too-early death in 1995 at age 42. But it also has joy: He found his community after leaving baseball, won gold in the Gay Olympics, and lived to see his special handshake become a widespread symbol of celebration. O’Brien’s illustrations, opaque and with highly defined detail, are both imposing and intimate, and they move readers through Burke’s trials and triumphs. Bildner’s honest and weighty text is balanced by spreads full of motion, whether figures round bases or connect with high-fives.

A bittersweet legacy now accessible to younger readers and sports fans.