(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. In 1936, was twenty-one-year-old Joe DiMaggio ready for the Major Leagues? Should Satchel Paige, pitching great in the Negro Leagues, be playing in the Majors? A game was set up, and both players proved themselves worthy. Skead uses a little-known baseball episode to portray larger issues of race and justice in America; grainy brown-toned illustrations nicely evoke the dreamy reminiscences of baseball legend. Bib.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2013

(4) 4-6 Twelve-year-old Nick is a talented pitcher until polio strikes. His speedy recovery and return to baseball--aided by time spent with real-life pitcher Satchel Paige--feel unrealistic. The story, set in the 1930s when Paige and other black ballplayers were barred from Major League teams, smoothly comingles fact and fiction. Baseball fans will recognize several historic players in this readable narrative.

Reviewer: Luther B. Clegg

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Terry Widener. This readable, thorough picture book biography follows the iconoclastic African American pitcher from his childhood through his unprecedented success in the Negro Leagues to his determination to make it into major-league baseball--until 1947, open only to whites. Adler ably conveys Paige's larger-than-life personality, aided by Widener's bold and appropriately exaggerated acrylic illustrations. A timeline and brief source note are included.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Rich Tommaso. Narrator Emmet Wilson describes his time in the Negro Leagues and its highlight: scoring against Satchel Paige. Wilson is a sharecropper, and this graphic novel is as much about segregation in the American South during the early- to mid-twentieth century as it is about baseball. The story is a concise and engaging introduction to many topics surrounding Jim Crow laws.

Reviewer: David Elzey