Customer Reviews

Dad, Jackie, And Me

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"Dad, Jackie, and Me" is a fabulous story about a father and a son, about prejudice and triumph. Myron Uhlberg subtly creates a parallel between the unfair discrimination against his father for being deaf and Jackie Robinson for being African-American. This is a touching book with lovely illustrations...not to mention so many dimensions for a classroom teacher to explore with students! Plus, I met Myron today, and he is one of THE most warm, friendly, wonderful authors I have ever met. I give him and his works my most glowing praise!

This is my new favorite book. Myron Uhlberg's beautiful picture book connects the plight of suffering racial discrimination with being subjected to prejudice for having a disability. It connects the famous with the common. It will tear at your heart, and hopefully open it to know that change is possible; although often slow and painful. The inside cover is filled with primary resource news clippings from Jackie Robinson's career, making the historical piece all the more tangible to grasp. The author's note at the back of the book pulls it all together, and reveals why this was a book that had to be written. I recommend it for ages 8 to 108.

Myron Uhlberg is a prolific author, having published 7 books after his 65th birthday. He has many others in the works. He choses his words carefully and meaningfully. Most of the storyline is based on some aspect of his life, having been raised by 2 deaf parents. He builds a sense of deep, caring for the characters which will connect you to them. The illustrator has done an excellent job of capturing the essence of the storyline.

The story is a good one, and, if the afterword is to be believed, true to the author's life. His deaf father feels a personal connection to Jackie Robinson because of discrimination and prejudice, and goes to all the games he can, learns as much about baseball as possible (the afterword explained that his father hadn't learned baseball at the residential school he attended as a child as it was considered a "waste of time" to teach deaf kids to play sports), and when the Dodgers win the World Series, our narrator's father is thrown a ball from his hero, so it's this triumph for him as well. It's a good story.

Of course, the afterword is where the meat is. In the story itself, we're told that "The Giants hated Jackie Robinson", but no detail is given. The innocent reader might come away with the impression that the Giants disliked him simply because he was a good ball player! The afterword explains how our author's father told him to look out for all the unfair treatment Robinson would receive from the other team, all the petty bits of discrimination - this isn't mentioned in the book proper. The afterword explains why the author's father was so interested in Jackie Robinson (and why he knew so little about baseball prior to that, up to being unable to catch a ball) and also explains that his father told him about the first deaf man to play in the Major Leagues, well before this time.

All of this information could have been integrated into the book, and it would have made the book a better read. I could understand leaving out some information for younger readers, but this book is written on an advanced enough level that I don't think that could apply here. Given how important the context of discrimination and prejudice and differences is for understanding the book, I think it should have been included in the main text.

I also am not a fan of the illustrations. Many of them create the appearance of having been posed rather than of real people. For example, in the scene where our author's dad first shows up with a pair of tickets to a game and shows them to his son, their expressions and posture look so forced that I keep wondering if there's supposed to be a hidden camera in the room!

There are two minor notes I want to make about language as well. First, the book does mention that Jackie Robinson was the first Negro signed onto the Major Leagues, this shouldn't be a problem. It was the acceptable word back then and is totally appropriate in the context. A construction such as African-American would sound very strange! The second is how the father and son talk. The father's speech (unless he's specifically using his voice) is always referred to as signing - "My father signed this" or "My father signed that". This makes sense, his father uses ASL to communicate and we're told his speech is unclear. But when the son speaks to his father, the verb is "said". This forms the weird picture in my mind that the father is signing but his son is speaking English to him and expecting him to lipread. Given that we see the boy signing in many pictures of him with his dad, this seems unlikely (not to mention inefficient!) These two comments are very minor, and shouldn't cause problems for any reader, but I thought I'd mention them.

I read Mr. Uhlberg's memoir of his childhood and his deaf parents. That inspired me to look into Uhlberg's children's books. This is one of the stories touched on in the adult memoir. I think it is a beautifully told and illustrated story of a different time in America. Perhaps today, with Barack Obama as president, it is relevant to look back at the breaking of another barrier in American Life. This fictionalized story of a moment in Uhlberg's youth covers the thrills and the willfulness of 60 years ago. Beautifully told. Realistically illustrated.

This is a wonderful book, both for its story and for the beautiful pictures that accompany it. I read this book with my 6 year old son who knew about Jackie Robinson. It gave us an opportunity to talk about the reality of Jackie's personal story, as well as the factual and fictional story of the father and son and their love of watching him play. The art is beautiful.

Dad, Jackie, And Me
It's 1947 and a boy and his dad are excitedly following the fortunes of the Brooklyn Dodgers and their star player Jackie Robinson, the first African-American player in major league baseball. This book is a bit long for younger children, but it mixes the story of Jackie Robinson, a young boy's love of baseball, life in Brooklyn in the 40's, and the experience of growing up with a father who is deaf (and can't play baseball besides). The Author's Note at the end explains the true parts of the story and explores the idea of overcoming prejudice.