Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson (tesT)

Scholastic Biography

by Barry Denenberg

Jackie Robinson was a great athlete, but his destiny went far beyond the baseball diamond. As the first black man to play in the all-white baseball leagues, he was a symbol of courage, hope, and unity for all black and white Americans, and for people throughout the world. A fresh new biography of an American hero. Illustrated.

Genres: Biography, Sports, Nonfiction, History, Childrens, American History, Baseball

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1990

About the author

Barry Denenberg is the critically acclaimed author of non-fiction and historical fiction. His historical fiction includes titles in the Dear America, My Name is America, and Royal Diaries series, many of which have been named NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. His nonfiction books have covered a wide array of topics, from Anne Frank to Elvis Presley. After the publication of An American Hero: The True Story of Charles Lindburgh, Denenberg was interviewed for various documentaries including ABC’s “The Century.”

Denenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived in Long Island, Binghamton, New York, and Palisades Park, New Jersey. “I was a serious reader from an early age and when I attended Boston University in 1968, majoring in history, I worked in a bookstore at night,” he says. “After college I was a book buyer for some fine, independent bookstores, some of the nation’s largest retail book chains and a marketing executive in publishing.

“At the age of forty I came to the startling realization that the glamorous world of power lunches, power politics, and power trips was not for me. I immediately went to work on the Great American Novel (since destroyed) and was rescued when my future wife, Jean Feiwel (then and now publisher of Scholastic Inc.) made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Scholastic had received a biography of John F. Kennedy that they deemed unacceptable: would I like to try and write one?

“The rest is history in more ways than one. I went on to write biographies of Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, J. Edgar Hoover, Nelson Mandela, Elvis Presley and Voices From Vietnam, an oral history of the war.

“Writing some of the first books in the Dear America series was a turning point in my career. Its popularity and the resulting readers’ letters made a great impression on me. This in turn inspired my writing and fueled my research. With my bookstore background and the help of numerous knowledgeable booksellers I am able to assemble an extensive bibliography on each topic I write.

“I think there’s an art to both writing and research. I’m a good writer but a better researcher.”

Something that has added greatly to Denenberg’s perspective on writing for young readers is his volunteer work as Director of Creative Writing and Library Services at the Waterside School in Stamford, Connecticut. Waterside, established in 2001, is an independent school dedicated to educating gifted children of the communities’ low-income families.

Aside from writing and teaching Denenberg’s interests include listening to music, reading (books not related to his research), swimming, practicing yoga and spending time with his family.

Barry Denenberg lives in Bedford, New York with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Adolfo Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book "The story of Jackie Robinson" by Barry Denenberg is about Jackie Robinson's life. Jackie Robinson was colored and it was hard for him to get jobs or get into colleges. He became a MLB player and whenever it was his turn to bat he would always get booed and sometimes the pitcher would throw the baseball at their face. I gave this book five stars because I really like the baseball player Jackie Robinson and the book was interesting.

[Jacki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson is a biography, written for Intermediate readers.

It is well written and informative. The photos are a plus. While I was aware of the significance of Jackie Robinson in baseball history, I learned quite a bit about his life outside of baseball from this book.

I rated the book 4-stars. I felt the historical significance of Jackie Robinson's acceptance into the world of Major League Baseball was well done as well as the information provided on the predjudices faced by Blacks in the United States during the era. The photographs included in the book are a plus, especially for children. Children reading this book today would be surprised to discover Major League Baseball, as well as other sports, were segregated.

This book could be used in a classroom during Black History Month as it is an excellent example of progress made throughout our history.

[Aaron Sauceda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jackie Robinson is AWESOME! This book is all about his life and how he was so sucessful. The way the author did this is very good, and even this is my anchor text for biography, I think you should all read it.

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book,"Stealing Home:The Story of Jackie Robinson," is a very good book. It told me about his early life, and athletic career. I enjoyed learning even more about him with this book. Something I learned was that Jackie played in the major leagues for his family and his mom especially. This book was recommended to me by Ms. Dayhoff and i really liked it so I recommend it to anyone who likes baseball or to anyone who would likes to learn more about Jackie Robinson.

[Amairani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson is a biography based on Jackie Robinson's life. Jackie was a very talented athlete and played baseball, basketball, football, and track. He lived during the time of segregation making it hard as a colored man. Thanks to scholarships, he was able to get into UCLA and played for the football team. He later left to join the army, and after that didn't work out, he continued to play baseball. He joined the MLB and is now known world wide. I recommend this book to anyone that would like to know more about Jackie and his life.

[Isabella Larios · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book about Jackie Robinson who is a legend in all sports and in everyone´s lives. ¨Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson ¨ by Barry Denenberg is a good book because it gives the information some of us might not know about Jackie Robinson. In my point of view I learned many new facts about his childhood, his school life, his career before baseball, and his life later on after baseball.I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about Jackie Robinson.

[Blake]

“Stealing Home, the story of Jackie Robinson” by Barry Denenberg is a biography about Jackie Robinson’s life. This book starts off with Jackie in his high school years playing the sports he loves. He played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track. While being the best at all of those sports, he loved football the most and had dreams about becoming a professional football player. He was a top running back in the nation during his senior year and was getting offers from colleges all over wanting him. He was also outstanding at track and ran in the Olympics in Germany his senior year. Adolf Hitler was the leader of the games and was very upset when Jackie, a black man, beat his white runners there. After Jackie graduated high school, he attended University California Los Angeles. He started out at halfback and played great his freshman and sophomore years leading the nation in yards per carry and touchdowns. After that year he started to be a troublemaker and ended up dropping out of college and going into the military. He was in it for awhile but eventually the segregation got to him and he decided to leave and move back home. While all of this was going on he had a girlfriend named Rachel who would soon become his wife. He started to play baseball in the negro leagues for a job now. He was the top player in the whole league for the first year and got noticed by Branch Rickey the Brooklyn Dodgers manager at the time. He ended up making him an offer to play in the pros with the whites and became the first black man to ever play an organized sport with the whites. He wasn't the only black player for long and soon after there were quite a few black players in the league. He was the best player in the league his second year into it and along with Branch Rickey they won four out of the five World Series Championships they played in. Rickey soon after retired and then so did Jackie.

The two main characters in the book are Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey his coach and manager. Jackie was the biggest icon to change segregation to start to slow down and have everyone become equal. throughout the country. He was mainly known for playing baseball but also was a huge part in the civil rights movement. Branch Rickey was and will always be one of the risk taking and best coach and manager ever in the game of baseball.

The setting takes place in the early to mid 1900's, in California. It starts off with in Jackie’s life up throughout college. He then went to Hawaii while he was in the military and then ended up back at home and traveling along with the baseball team around the country. He stayed in Brooklyn while he played for them but then when he retired he moved back to Los Angeles.

I would recommend this book to anyone and more for the baseball fan. It is a great book to learn about the start of baseball and the civil rights movement. I would also recommend it to anyone looking for a good, short read about a great individual. I rate this book a five because the story line was great with the details and that I learned a lot.

[Eddie Rangel]

Stealing Home The Story of Jackie Robinson by Barry Denenberg was a good book. At the begging of the book Jackie's dad left hi when he was young. He had to leave collage to help his mom get money. Jackie was told by Branch Ricky to act more like a baseball player and he cold be in the dodgers. He got in but only one of the players liked him. It was Hard for Jackie cause he got death notes. Jackie was sent to the giants cause the giants payed for him . Jackie left baseball. jackie ended up dieing of a hart attack

[Logan Erdmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this biography of Jackie Robinson. I would recommend it to teens that are interested in the advancement of different racial groups. The book showed Jackie being one of the best athletes in UCLA’s history. Branch Rickey brought him to the Dodgers organization because he thought Jackie would be able to handle the pressure of being the first African American to play in major league baseball. Jackie would go on to prove that he is one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He is remembered every year in the MLB on Jackie Robinson day.

[Koen Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story of Jackie Robinson is interesting because it tells the story of Jackie Robinson as a child, growing up and his career in sports. As a kid Jackie had to wear second hand clothes because his mother, Mallie Robinson worked for a white family as a nanny. Most of the time he got clothes from his teachers or friends. When Jackie went to UCLA he was the first four letterman player at UCLA. I enjoyed this book because I enjoy reading about Jackie Robinson. I recommend this book to anyone who likes biographies about people who played sports.

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

" Stealing Home the Story of Jackie Robinson " is a great book that I enjoyed reading. It talks about all of the struggles that Robinson had to face to be able to follow his dreams of becoming a professional athlete. Not only does it talk about the time where he was playing baseball, but it also talks about his childhood, all the way up to the moment he retired . If you enjoy learning about people that impacted our world in a good way , and learning about what they had to face to do so, I would recommend this book to you.

[Raynesha Nolden]

I'm done reading this book it was a very good book.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the United States now has a federal holiday celebrating the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he is arguably not the most important person in the civil rights movement in the U. S. There are many reasons to believe that the key role was played by Jackie Robinson.
When he was signed and developed by Branch Rickey, there was a lot of opposition to the black Robinson playing in major league baseball. Ironically, some of the opposition was not racial, but economic. The owners of the stadiums where major league teams played believed that the Negro leagues would fold if black players were allowed in the major leagues. Those owners made a great deal of money leasing the stadiums for Negro league games. Even the owners of the teams in the Negro League were concerned, they (correctly) thought that black players in the major leagues would doom the Negro Leagues. There was also the fact that if blacks were allowed in the major leagues, many white players would lose their jobs. After all, it was no secret that many of the players in the Negro Leagues were superior to most white players.
This book describes all of these economic issues without sacrificing coverage of the explicit and implicit racism within and surrounding baseball that Jackie had to overcome. Unlike others, Jackie had to simply endure all the verbal and occasional physical abuse. Once he proved to be successful, other teams were generally quick to sign and play black players. Had Robinson not prevailed, it is hard to see how the opportunities for other blacks to enter the major leagues would have opened up.
Written at the YA level, all sides of the issue of Jackie Robinson’s entry into the major leagues are covered. In the end, not only did Jackie Robinson succeed on the field, but the owners also discovered that his presence did a great deal to improve their receipts at the box office.

[JESSICA J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson was a very well written biography of the famous baseball player targeted for intermediate grades, possibly a lower level reader in middle school. In addition to learning about the life of Jackie Robinson, students also learn about how different life was for people of color pre-civil rights era. I also think that students will appreciate that there are a lot of captioned photos throughout the book that depict a different time than most are probably used to seeing.

In the reading classroom I could see several uses for this book. Just to start, the main character represents diversity in different ways (race, socio-economic status, etc.) and all students can benefit from this. Different themes of his life can be discussed: hard work, overcoming challenges, etc. Students could also view this book from a historical lens and compare and contrast differences or similarities from a biography of someone from todays times or teach about segregation. Specific passages from different parts of the book could be taken out and read/analyzed/summarized/inferred, etc. I would also recommend this book to reluctant boy readers because of the sports element. Overall, I think this book is a great addition to my classroom library.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Story of Jackie Robinson was about him playing all sports. But finally he admired this one sport. That one sport was baseball. He played all the time. But then his life changed. It changed once he was transferred to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Many people were booing him just because he was a black. But then once he hit the ball the it went flying and right out the stadium. He made a home run that surprised everyone because he was black. Then the next few games he was playing a whole lot better. There was this one time he tricked two players that surrounded him. He made it to base and everyone was just watching him play. Other teams wanted him but he stayed with the Dodgers. But then one day after a game he got killed by someone and no one ever knew who was the person who murdered Jackie Robinson.

[Jimmys · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were many Pros and Cons on this book Stealing Home. I liked this book because he was first African American to play because and he didn’t care if someone told him something bad he just blurted it out. Another thing I like was he stole the most base in MLB history. Therefore he was probably one of the fastest guy in the MLB. One more thing that I like was he was very smart on the field and never got out on the bases. Other things that I liked was he was a power hitter and hit many homer runs. Some thing else that I like was he had this friend that was white and he always backed him up went people told him stuff.

[Christopher Almaguer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stealing Home: The story of Jackie Robinson by Barry Denenberg is about of course Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson grew up with a hard life of being black because the U.S. was still segregated. Being black during this time period was hard because you couldn't get jobs or anything as easily as whites did. Jackie made history of being the first African-American in the Major League Baseball. Jackie Robinson inspires me because he encourage many people to stand up for civil rights. I would recommend this book this book to people who likes biographies and who like baseball.

[Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very informational about Jackie Robinson. He was the first African American to ever play in the Major Baseball League. He told me about his childhood, the time he was in collage, the time he was in the military during World War Two, and much more. I read this book because of the biography that we did, but then I grew an interest into this book. I recommend this book to people who love baseball and would like to learn about Jackie Robinson.

[Erika Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very informative book that focuses on Jackie Robinson’s baseball career and contributions to civil rights. It’s clearly written for middle grades, but that doesn’t take away from the information presented. The book gives some brief background about Robinson’s life, but spends most of its time focusing on his college and post-college life as an athlete. I enjoyed the pictures and pacing of the chapters.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read aloud to my kids that promoted dialogue about racism and integration. I have great respect for Jackie Robinson and his wife Rachal as well as Branch Rickey. I appreciate what they did to help promote more rights for blacks.

[Sarah Boren]

Read with our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders! I already loved Jackie Robinson, but this book taught me a lot that I didn't know. The kids had some idea of what it was like for black people in this time, but this book really gave them a look from Jackie and his family's perspective.

[L Ruggles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this one to the kids. We loved the story and learned a lot about this brave man! My only critique would be the sections with baseball stats - knowing pretty much nothing about the sport these made no sense. But I’m sure others appreciated the detail.

[Kayla Sullinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick and easy read. There was so much information that was left out of his movie. The pictures were great. I learned a lot about Jackie from reading this. I think that it would be a great read for kids.

[Collin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book and really showed that anyone of any race can accomplish anything in life you just have to try and never give up no matter how much pressure so keep pushing tell you succeed.

[Evan Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book! It told me how hard it was to be an african american back then and how strong Jackie was.

[Angelica Gonzalez · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was a really good boo i learned what happened to jake and all the stories of how bad and horrible it was back then.

[AMY · Rating 1 out of 5]

117 pages. I read two chapters. It was pretty good but seems like it was written for middle or high school level. I would skip this one. Not recommended.

[Stevie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book, but a little to easy to read, it was meant for a younger reader.

[Addison Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great!
I understand the story of Jackie Robinson much more now!
I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to read a shorter book (a little more than 100 pages) with a great story!

[Gavin Morelock · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a book that consistently gave background information based upon the child and adult forms of Jackie Robinson. An overall pretty good read.