Stealing Home: Jackie Robinson: Against the Odds

by Robert Burleigh, Mike Wimmer (Illustrator)

Man on third. Two outs. The pitcher eyes the base runner, checks for the sign. The fans in the jammed stadium hold their breath. Flapping his outstretched arms like wings, number 42 leads off again. It is September 1955, game one of the World Series, the Yankees versus the Dodgers, and Jackie Robinson is about to do the unbelievable. Attempt to steal home. In a World Series game. To race a baseball thrown from the pitcher's mound and win! Is it possible? Yes, it is -- if you are Jackie Robinson!

Genres: Picture Books, Biography, Sports, Nonfiction, History, African American

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 9, 2007

About the author

Over the past 35 years, I have published poems, reviews, essays, many filmstrips and videos, and more than 40 children's picture books.

Born and raised in Chicago, I graduated from DePauw University (Greencastle, Indiana) and later received an MA in humanities from the University of Chicago. I've published books for children since the early 1990s. My books - including numerous unpublished ones! - run a broad gamut, from stories geared for pre-schoolers to survival stories and biographies aimed at seven to eleven-year-olds. My work is wide-ranging because, basically, I'm a generalist by experience - and inclination!

In addition to writing, I paint regularly under the art name Burleigh Kronquist and have shown work in one-person and group shows in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere around the country.

-from robertburleigh.com

Reviews

[Steve Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very nicely put together for younger students. The story of Jackie Robinson can be a difficult one for parents and teachers to approach with regards to kids. It's important to introduce the issues, but this man went through so much! I feel this one is truly meant for younger students, and it does a decent job, but it skirts around a lot too. It comes down to opinion, and how much you truly want to convey and teach. I will say that illustrations are amazing! They really are fascinating, and I believe my class will love looking through this for them alone. The story featured is very quick, and extremely easy to read. Text features offer facts and backstories of his life, but I will say that they're written in very small text and might not be super approachable for young students (maybe that's the intention?).

Jackie Robinson is a must in any baseball themed unit. This is a good one for my aged kiddos to have on hand.

[Roger Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong? That’s how Jackie Robinson felt when he went into the MLB league. Barry Denenberg wrote a book called Stealing Home. The genre of the book is nonfiction sports. This book would fit into those genres because it’s a biography about his life and it’s also about baseball.

The Story of Jackie Robinson is a about the hardships he went through as an African American living in the U.S. Throughout the book he explains and talks about his life accomplishments like going to UCLA and being the first four letter athlete. He also talks about serving in WW2, also about the hardest times in his life as well like not being allowed to sit with the white members and eat on the football team, or the way he was treated by fans, other players, his own teammates, and coaches coming into the MLB. But no matter the amount of doubt or hate he received from everybody he continued to do what he believed and what he wanted. He broke so many barriers in the racial way with the world and so many records as he played throughout his career. Jackie Robinson was one of the best to ever play in the league. He was an amazing player and an amazing person.

If I were to rate this book out of 5 stars I would rate it a 4.5. I would rate it that because of how moving Jackie’s life was. I would also rate it that because of how inspiring he is as a person and how strong he was to go through all of the things he did and never give up, and always strived to break more barriers as well as break more records in the MLB. Jackie Robinson, in my opinion, is one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story itself was kind of dull, just a few words on one page. Then there were LONG blurbs on each page about different parts of his life. It's too hard to read them both together, because you end up losing the thread of the story (more like a poem) when you read the long bits. Could've been executed better.

[Krystal F · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this style of biography was very cool. The illustrations follow a single time that Jackie Robinson steals home to score a point but on each page there is a bunch of information that go more in depth on his life. Good for younger grades and older grades.

Category: Biography

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This inspirational story of how Jackie Robinson stole home is beautifully written by Robert Burleigh and illustrated by Mike Wimmer. The text is simple, but sidebars are included on each page with biographical facts and details about this all-around athlete.

[Phylisha Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jackie Robinson. Enough said.

[Ethan & Isaac · Rating 3 out of 5]

An average book about an above-average man.

[Joshua Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short book with beautiful illustrations on every page. I love the concept of a story about the journey from 3rd to home.

[Debi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the poetry in this book, coupled with the facts on the "baseball cards" on each page, there is something for everyone.

[Lindsey Hulsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always liked Jackie Robinson. Good diversity book and helps kids understand that they can all do anything they want to. Also not to let others keep them from doing what they want! Good for black history month as well.

[Haley Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had amazing illustrations. They really helped tell the story. This book would be good for second grade because Jackie Robinson is in the social studies standard for that grade level.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Burleigh's story about Jackie Robinson's courageous entry into major league baseball falls short of home plate. There are many books that retell the story of how Robinson shattered baseball's color barrier, and few are as stunning artistically as this rendition. Wimmer's rich illustrations focus on Robinson's game-winning run against the New York Yankees in the World Series. Burleigh's storyline that accompanies the illustrations is compelling, but the text boxes that fill in the story of Robinson's life are disjointed. The additional information about his early life and other background lend depth to the story, they can be difficult to follow and both the size of the font and format make for difficult reading.

[538AM_Randi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and interesting images fill the pages of this excellent book about Jackie Robinson and the moment he changed baseball (and America) forever. Burleigh hones his descriptive skills with phrases like, "...the packed, white-shirted crowd wakes to a visible electricity," to draw readers in and make them feel as if they were there when Jackie stole home. The concise and descriptive language is accompanied by baseball card-like boxes filled with more information on the incredible historic figure, and makes this a book suitable for a variety of ages.

[Sarah Threlkeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

The text of this story builds to match the events so that I was turning the pages more quickly as Jackie was running the bases. This could be read to lower elementary students, as long as some background on baseball was provided, or to upper elementary and middle school students because each page has several paragrahs about Robinson and baseball in the 1940's written in smaller font on images of baseball cards. The concept is executed well and will appeal to kids who are interested in sports and issues of justice.

[Bobbi Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stealing Home Jackie Robinson: Against the Odds
Rate: 5
This book was phenomenal with its facts. There was a sentence per page that told of a play during the game. Then it had a paragraph about the different things that Jackie had went through and baseball facts. It was a detailed book that gave you enough information that you wanted to keep reading about the great Jackie Robinson. This book did a really great job of telling you also how difficult it was to be an African American player in the the major leagues.

[Marisa Montgomery · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the story of Jackie Robinson and how he came to have a career in major league baseball. But more importantly than he career in baseball was all the effort he put into achieving racial equality.

I didn't love this book, it was much more about the facts than actually telling a story. But Jackie Robinson does have a good story. The illustrations were beautiful and I like how the factual text was put on a baseball card.

This book could be used in speech therapy as a reward if the client really likes baseball, if they have had a productive session they could read a page or two.

[Gracie Guagenti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is almost written like poetry. It just has a sentence or two on each page next to a large illustration. Below the main text, however, are little baseball cards containing factual information on Jackie and that time in history. The illustrations are very lifelike. I particularly enjoyed one that focused on the crowd's reaction to Jackie successfully stealing home during a game. Their faces give depth to the story.

[Riegs · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book are gorgeous, but the content itself wouldn't be super helpful for a student doing a biography project. Across the tops of the pages are lines from a poem, and on the bottom are informational boxes with stories about Mr. Robinson. It's lovely, but probably more useful as an art book or a poem than informational text.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone seems to write about Jackie Robinson, and this book is another good one. It carries a poetic text with the full page, beautiful illustrations, but in addition, there is a small box on each page with quite a bit of additional information. This book tells very well the inspirational story of a great man.

[Bill Prosser · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Jackie Robinson story has been done a lot, and there is nothing really new in this one, but the artwork is wonderful. I like how the story is told two ways, in a loose rhyme at the top and more detailed facts on the back of old time baseball cards. I love the paintings in this book.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book and is written on two levels - one really simple for small children and then with more details for older readers. I'm a fan of the Dodgers and Jackie Robinson, but I still learned a lot from this book.

[Abel Mora]

I learned that physicaly fighting back is not the only way. I learned that you have to keep trying.