We Are The Ship

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nelson, Kadir. WE ARE THE SHIP. New York: Hyperion, 2008.

PLOT SUMMARY
WE ARE THE SHIP is the story of the Negro baseball league from the beginning in the 1920’s through its decline in 1947. The story tells of the trial and tribulations the players went through in order to play the game they loved. The book covers the game as well as what it was like outside the game. The players went through racial discrimination and came out on the other side. The book has chapters on the Negro league and how it related to other cultures and leagues. This is a story of hardships and trials and coming out better on the other side.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
WE ARE THE SHIP is a social history book about the Negro baseball league. The book is written as if it were being told as a story, first hand account, passed down from generations. Although the book does not have a table of contents, it is organized into chapters which make it easier for the reader to find a particular topic. It also includes an index in the back.

The book is filled with quotes and first hand details from people who were actually there during the times of the Negro baseball league. Another way to tell that this book is accurate is that it has a bibliography in the back that includes works and references from experts in the field.

The pictures are perhaps the most intriguing part of this book. The pictures are oil paintings that are so vivid it makes you think the people are looking right off the page and into your eyes. The accuracy of the paintings makes them look more like portraits. The imagery takes you back to make you think you were actually there in that time.

This book is informational as well as interesting. It would be a perfect book for a middle school student interesting in baseball and/or history.


REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
A lost piece of American history comes to life in Kadir Nelson's elegant and eloquent history of the Negro Leagues and its gifted baseball players….Social studies teachers and baseball fans of all ages will covet this delightful winner of the 2009 Coretta Scott King author award and illustrator Honor award. SLJ

Award-winning illustrator and first-time author Nelson’s history of the Negro Leagues, told from the vantage point of an unnamed narrator, reads like an old-timer regaling his grandchildren with tales of baseball greats….The stories and artwork are a tribute to the spirit of the Negro Leaguers, who were much more than also-rans and deserve a more prominent place on baseball’s history shelves. BOOKLIST

CONNECTIONS
This is a perfect book to use for a lesson in civil rights. The book not only discusses racial segregation, it applies it to something most kids can relate to…sports. Read the book as a class and discuss some of the hardships that the players and all African Americans at that time went through.