Saturday, December 2, 2017

42 Is Not Just a Number


Just when you think you know Jackie Robinson, you realize you’ve only ever learned about a small snapshot of his life.  Some interesting factoids I learned while reading/listening (I got this one on audiobook and listened in my car).  

Did you know Jackie Robinson was working a construction job during the day and playing semi-pro football by night in Oahu, HI and that the construction job was on a naval base called…Pearl Harbor?!  He left the job just two days before Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Did you know Branch Rickey may have helped pave the way for Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier in baseball but he was also a savvy business man who realized that having the first black ball player would attract more black fans to the game?!  Thoughts that had simply never occurred to me were highlighted in Doreen Rappaport’s biography of Jackie Robinson.  Rappaport does a masterful job of highlighting different times through Jackie’s life in a way that is accessible to all readers.


Title: 42 Is Not Just a Number
Author: Doreen Rappaport
Published 2017 by Candlewick Press
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7624-7


This book was borrowed from the public library for review purposes.

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