I have been waiting to do this review for a month. There was only one problem: I couldn't find the book in our house. Thankfully, it resurfaced yesterday when I was looking for a place to put my new headphones (which I had to buy to plug into our TV so that I didn't wake everyone up at night anymore -- yup, that's my life now). So, the moment of truth has finally arrived.
THREE PROS
*Sharon Robinson didn't have to work too hard to come up with this story (since her family experienced it in real life), but that doesn't discount the gravity it holds even 60+ years later
*E.B. Lewis' illustrations have a Norman Rockwell type quality about them, which is rarely a bad thing
*One of the few sports books I have seen that can hold an adult's attention
*One of the few sports books I have seen that can hold an adult's attention
THREE CONS
*I can't be the first person to see the cover and think: "What a weird concept for a book"
*The subject matter limits its usefulness slightly, since it's not really a bedtime story or relevant year-round
*The subject matter limits its usefulness slightly, since it's not really a bedtime story or relevant year-round
*To a younger kid growing up in the 2000s, Jackie Robinson is about as foreign as (our technical first President) John Hanson is to grownups
ONE DAD'S OPINION
When I saw this thing sitting in a bin at the library, I laughed out loud at the tagline: "A True Story of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Jackie Robinson." I mean, how ridiculous does that sound? I had to check it out so that I could lampoon it to no end. But a funny thing happened on my way to Destruction. I fell in love with the story on the first read. It's really a touching piece that incorporates racial relations with religious differences and tops it all off with a whole lot of feelgoodness™! While I'll admit that it loses a little oomph each time you open it, Jackie's Gift never comes close to being a Borrow and, thus, will always be a solid choice to wrap up and place in a child's pile of presents during the holidays.
BUY / Borrow / Donate / Destroy
ONE DAD'S OPINION
When I saw this thing sitting in a bin at the library, I laughed out loud at the tagline: "A True Story of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Jackie Robinson." I mean, how ridiculous does that sound? I had to check it out so that I could lampoon it to no end. But a funny thing happened on my way to Destruction. I fell in love with the story on the first read. It's really a touching piece that incorporates racial relations with religious differences and tops it all off with a whole lot of feelgoodness™! While I'll admit that it loses a little oomph each time you open it, Jackie's Gift never comes close to being a Borrow and, thus, will always be a solid choice to wrap up and place in a child's pile of presents during the holidays.
BUY / Borrow / Donate / Destroy
2 comments:
This popped up in my Alltop folder in Google Reader and I'm so glad it did! Seemed like an odd book to me at first, too, but you've convinced me. (Happy to follow.)
Thanks Kelly!
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