Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America [Hardcover]

Sharon Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

A warm, intimate portrait of Jackie Robinson, America's sports icon, told from the unique perspective of a unique insider: his only daughter.

Sharon Robinson shares memories of her famous father in this warm loving biography of the man who broke the color barrier in baseball. Jackie Robinson was an outstanding athlete, a devoted family man and a dedicated civil rights activist. The author explores the fascinating circumstances surrounding Jackie Robinson's breakthrough. She also tells the off-the-field story of Robinson's hard-won victories and the inspiring effect he had on his family, his community. . . his country! Includes never-before-published letters by Jackie Robinson, as well as photos from the Robinson family archives.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7--In captivating words and pictures, Robinson chronicles the life of her legendary father. She weaves historical events into the story of one of baseball's greatest players, revealing how they shaped his life. Her text, combined with numerous black-and-white archival and family photographs, reproductions of newspaper headlines, magazine pages, and letters, illustrates Jackie Robinson's journey from childhood to the moment that he integrated major league baseball to his life as a businessman and civil rights spokesperson. In addition to personal details, this intimate biographical sketch and authentic glimpse into the life of a great African American provides information on the post-Civil War world, race relations, and the struggle for civil rights. It will inspire readers and enhance character-education units. Pair this first purchase with the author's Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By (Scholastic, 2001).--Tracy Bell, Durham Public Schools, NC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 3-7. There are numerous biographies about Robinson available for young people, but none have this book's advantage of family intimacy. In a personal account, Robinson's daughter, Sharon, describes her father's youth, his rise to become major-league baseball's first African American player, and his involvement in the civil rights movement. Sharon Robinson is an education executive for major-league baseball, and she writes about the sport and her father's life with the same immediate familiarity. It's her seamless blend of history and family story, though, that distinguishes this title. Through particular events in her father's life, the author makes the realities of a segregated society immediate: when her father first showed up for the Brooklyn Dodgers' spring training, for example, he was housed and fed separately from his white teammates. She also includes photographs of racially motivated death threats sent to the Robinson home. Robinson's emphasis on her parents' strong values reiterates some of the material in her previous title for youth, Jackie's Nine (2001), but her private view of her father's accomplishments, placed within the context of American sports and social history, makes for absorbing reading. An excellent selection of family and team photographs and other materials, including her parents' love letters in their own handwriting, illustrate this fine tribute. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic; 1 edition (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439425921
• ISBN-13: 978-0439425926
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 9.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Robinson, Jackie
  • #90 in Books > Children's Books > Biographies > Sports & Recreation

More About the Author

Sharon Robinson is an author and educational consultant for Major League Baseball (MLB). She has written four books about her father, including most recently Jackie's Gift: A true Story of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Jackie Robinson with illustrator E.B. Lewis (Viking, 2010), Testing the Ice: A true story of Jackie Robinson with illustrator, Kadir Nelson (Scholastic, 2009). She has also written two middle-grade novels. In her work with MLB, Ms Robinson directs the national character education program: Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life. The program is in it's 15th year and has reached over 19 million children. Prior to joining Major League Baseball, Sharon had a twenty-year career as a nurse-midwife. She taught in such prestigious universities as: Columbia, Howard, Georgetown, and Yale. Ms. Robinson holds a BS from Howard University and MS from Columbia University as well as several honorary doctorates. Sharon Robinson lives in New York City and Apollo Beach, Florida. Learn more about Sharon and her books at www.sharonrobinsonink.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kept Promises and Social Change, April 27, 2004

By 

Daphne Muse (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America (Hardcover)

Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America

In this wonderful biography,Sharon Robinson shares her father with us as a daughter who held her father in high regard not only for his achievements in breaking the color barrier in baseball, but also for his hard won victories in politics, busines, civil rights and as a family man. Through love letters to his wife Rachel, photos from the family's archive and Sharon's deft writing hand, readers get to spend time with Jackie Robinson and come to understand how he navigated his way through the treachery of racism to become an integral part of creating another important chapter in the social contract with America.

As the Vice President of Educational Programming for Major League Baseball and an author, Sharon Robinson continues to preserve her father's legacy--well.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Daughter Remembers Her Father, January 22, 2008

By 

Lynn Ellingwood "The ESOL Teacher" (Webster, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book written by a daughter about her father. The father happens to be Jackie Robinson, an important man in baseball and in African-American history. She remains down to Earth and describes the life the family led and how her father affected the family and history. Jackie Robinson was a giant among men and knew what he was doing. It is a credit to Robinson that he was able to make himself above reproach and acceptable to the white public. It had to be very stressful to him and his family to try to be perfect but somehow he was able to make it. A very moving story, simply told by a loving daughter.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great story about a great man!, October 22, 2007

By 

Sudsie Dann "sudie80" (Silver Spring, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America (Hardcover)

I can't say enough good things about this book. I have the soft-cover edition, over-sized - abt 9" x 10", double-spaced, with scads of pictures. Sharon did a wonderful job of writing and selecting the pictures to include. I learned things about her dad that I hadn't known before, and found my love and respect for him as an outstanding ball player and dignified man, a true gentleman, greatly increased. I stand in awe of him. What an example he has set for human beings of any and all races & colors! If I had sons, I'd want them to use Jackie Robinson as their model to follow in this life. His daughter Sharon deserves much credit for writing about his life, his sorrows, trials, & accomplishments in the face of ridicule and worse from ignorant people, for sharing all this with his now-adoring public. He proved that if you do what is right in spite of great opposition and threats, you'll come out ok in the end. I'm sure that his faith had a lot to do with his demeanor and positive attitude towards his trials.

I strongly recommend this book to all who enjoy reading true stories about those who have successfully overcome almost unsurmountable obstacles. Thrilling!

from Susan, an 87-year-old white life-long baseball "nut".