Jackie Robinson

Rookie Biography

by Wil Mara

Brief text chronicles the life of the Hall of Fame baseball player who, in 1947, became the first African American to play for a major league team.

Genres: Biography, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2001

About the author

Wil Mara has worked as an author for over 34 years and currently has more than 325 books in print. He has written both fiction and nonfiction, for children and adults. His books have won multiple awards, reached bestseller lists, earned excellent reviews, and been translated into more than a dozen languages. 2005’s Wave won the New Jersey Notable Book Award, and 2012’s The Gemini Virus remained on Amazon’s list of ‘Ten Bestseller Medical Thrillers’ for 14 consecutive weeks. The most recent novel in his disaster series, Fallout, was nominated for the Edgar Award for Novel of the Year. And his children’s nonfiction publications have won countless awards and terrific reviews in all the leading trade journals, including Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and others.

Much of his work for children has been nonfiction for the school-library market. He also ghostwrote five of the popular ‘Boxcar Children’ mysteries. And starting in 2019, Rosen Publishing released the first of his new ‘Twisted’ series, which has been described as “Twilight Zones for kids.” It became the most pre-ordered fiction series in the company’s history. The first ‘Twisted’ book, The Videomaniac, was released on January 1 and sold through its first printing in less than a month. The second, House of a Million Rooms, was released on March 1 and, just a few weeks later, was chosen as a Main Selection Title by the Junior Library Guild.

Wil was also an editor, administrator, and executive inside the industry for over 20 years, working for such houses as Scholastic, McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, and Prentice-Hall until turning to fulltime writing in 2005. He is an associate member of the NJASL and an executive member of the Board of Directors for the New Jersey Center for the Book, which is an affiliate of the US Library of Congress. He is also the vice president of the Literary Alliance of New Jersey, the host of the ‘Voice of American Libraries’ podcast, and the 2019 recipient of the Literary Lion of New Jersey Award, whose past winners include Gus Friedrich, Dean Emeritus of Rutgers University, and Joyce Carol Oates, National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Wil is also an experienced speaker, presenter, and voice artist, having visited more than 300 schools and other institutions, and done the audio readings for many books, including his 2012 thriller The Gemini Virus. He continues to speak to audiences across the country (including via video) and do voice work as his writing schedule permits.

Reviews

[☼Bookish in Virginia☼]

Another brief introduction to this famous sports figure.





Word Count: 316
Page Count: 32
Accelerated Reading level: 2.8 / points: 0.5
AR quiz: 86459
Lexile: 390L
Common Core Recommended

see also ----
JACKIE ROBINSON
(First Biographies)
by Lola M. Schaefer

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book with my summer lit camp students. They had the following thoughts about the book:
It makes me feel awesome.
He was the best baseball player.
He didn't give up and he kept on going.
When people booed at him, he stood up for himself.

[Chad Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy biography of baseball's color barrier breaking all-star

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about Jackie Robinson having to comover all the racial comments and controversy about a African American playing in a "white mans sport" baseball and this book will teach you about how it would've felt to have that happen to you in the 1940's.it informs you a lot about him and his achievements being the first African American baseball player and carrying his team to 6 pennants.also helps you learn more about the civil rights movement.

[Shylyn Bourland · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book ! my grandma had the book at her house and she made me read it in the car because i was bored I didn't want to but have to listen to her ... so i stared reading and it was a really good ! and i heard of him before so it was cool learning more about him . and i finshed the book and my grandma was like told you so ! so yeah awesome book ! should read ..

[Hae Sun]

This book is about Jackie Robinson. He was the first African American major league baseball. This book shows his struggles and achievements.
I would use this book for a guided reading small group lesson. We would talk about fiction and nonfiction books. I can also use this book on diversity and civil rights units.

[Jose B · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a really interesting book with a lot of information. It had a lot of details about his life

[Jackie316 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short & sweet. He does a great job summing up Jackie Robinson's life.