Satchel Paige: Don't Look Back [Hardcover]

David A. Adler (Author), Terry Widener (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Satchel Paige could throw a baseball like no one else. But when he began his career in the 1920s, even the best African American players were kept out of the major leagues. Paige rose to stardom in the Negro Baseball Leagues--and he waited for his chance to play in the "big show." Finally, at an age when most players retire, Paige proved that staying in the game pays off.

           

David A. Adler and Terry Widener, the award-winning team behind several acclaimed sports biographies, have created a powerful story about a talented athlete who just wouldn't give up. Satchel Paige is an inspired subject for baseball lovers, readers who are interested in African American history, and anyone who has held on to a dream.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The great baseball pitcher was always larger than life: here he looms as a folk hero. Adler tells the story of Paige's life simply: the seventh of 11 children, he was sent to reform school for petty theft but was famous for his arm from his earliest years. Successful in the Negro Leagues for decades, he eventually became a major league rookie--in his early forties. Widener's acrylic paintings elongate and exaggerate the figures, using a rubbery perspective and old-fashioned hues to great effect. Although this is not as powerful as Lesa Cline-Ransome's Satchel Paige (1999), it does capture Paige's personal charisma as well as his place in baseball history. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

DAVID A. ADLER and TERRY WIDENER are the team behind many award-winning books, including America's Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle, a Child Magazine Best Book of the Year. David A. Adler lives on Long Island, New York. Terry Widener lives in McKinney, Texas.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1 edition (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152055851
• ISBN-13: 978-0152055851
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #890,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write both fiction and non-fiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later. Of course, since I'll be spending a lot of time with each main character, why not have him or her be someone I like? Andy Russell is based, loosely, on a beloved member of my family. He's fun to write about and the boy who inspired the character is even more fun to know. Cam Jansen is based even more loosely on a classmate of mine in the first grade whom we all envied because we thought he had a photographic memory. Now, especially when my children remind me of some promise they said I made, I really envy Cam's amazing memory. I have really enjoyed writing about Cam Jansen and her many adventures. For my books of non-fiction I write about subjects I find fascinating. My first biography was Our Golda: The Life of Golda Meir. To research that book, I bought a 1905 set of encyclopedia. Those books told me what each of the places Golda Meir lived in were like when she lived there. I've written many other biographies, including books about Martin Luther King, Jr; George Washington; Abraham Lincoln; Helen Keller; Harriet Tubman; Anne Frank; and many others in my Picture Book Biography series. I've been a Yankee and a Lou Gehrig fan for decades so I wrote Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man. It's more the story of his great courage than his baseball playing. Children face all sorts of challenges and it's my hope that some will be inspired by the courage of Lou Gehrig. I am working now on another book about a courageous man, Janusz Korczak. My book One Yellow Daffodil is fiction, too, but it's based on scores of interviews I did with Holocaust survivors for my books We Remember the Holocaust, Child of the Warsaw Ghetto, The Number on My Grandfather's Arm, and Hiding from the Nazis. The stories I heard were compelling. One Yellow Daffodil is both a look to the past and to the future, and expresses my belief in the great spirit and strength of our children. I love math and was a math teacher for many years, so it was fun for me to write several math books including Fraction Fun, Calculator Riddles, and Shape Up! Fun with Triangles and Other Polygons. In my office I have this sign, "Don't Think. Just Write!" and that's how I work. I try not to worry about each word, even each sentence or paragraph. For me stories evolve. Writing is a process. I rewrite each sentence, each manuscript, many times. And I work with my editors. I look forward to their suggestions, their help in the almost endless rewrite process. Well, it's time to get back to dreaming, and to writing, my dream of a job. David A. Adler is the author of more than 175 children's books, including the Young Cam Jansen series. He lives in Woodmere, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story to Inspire the Delinquent Tween or Teenage Boy, October 17, 2007

By 

Allison C.G. "book lover" (Pasco, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Satchel Paige: Don't Look Back (Hardcover)

Absolutely PERFECT book to teach your classroom or your children to dream big and to never let anyone hold you back. In the book Satchel steals something as a young boy and gets sent to boarding school. He talks about how he took the opportunity to get his life together and to never be held back again by the bad behaviors that he learned from his childhood. Many young boys often turn to theft drugs or violence when their parents aren't really there for them, but Satchel is a great example of turning your life around. This book is awe-inspiring to the young boy who might desperately need to change his life around.