I Am Jackie Robinson

K-Gr 3—This title highlighting events from baseball star Jackie Robinson's life is a preachy, moralistic account of courage. Its sentimentality and sugary-sweetness are a throwback to motivational tales of a century ago. Meltzer is highly selective in his presentation. Facts, including names, dates, and places, are few and far between, and the theme of bravery overrides all else. Meltzer assumes readers have a basic knowledge of baseball, and many terms are not defined. Eliopoulos's cartoonish illustrations are corny and, as Jackie is always shown as a small child (a characteristic of this series), border on disrespectful. This book isn't complete or thorough enough for use as a biography, and the perky tone will likely cause eye-rolling among readers and listeners. There are many other more informative, better written books on Robinson that also emphasize the themes of courage and racial equality, such as Cathy Goldberg Fishman's When Jackie and Hank Met (Marshall Cavendish, 2012), a picture book that parallels the lives of Robinson and Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg, and April Jones Prince's easy reader Jackie Robinson: He Led the Way (Penguin, 2007).—Ann W. Moore, Schenectady County Public Library, NY