Jackie and Me: A Very Special Friendship - Softcover

Grossinger, Tania

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1510712704 ISBN 13: 9781510712706

Publisher: Sky Pony, 2017

Synopsis

As a step” in her large family, Tania doesn’t feel like she fits in. Especially at the swank upstate hotel that the family runs, one that caters to the rich and famous NYC clientele.

One day, famous athlete Jackie Robinson pries Tania out of her shell by asking her to play ping-pong. He talks to her kindly, helping to bolster her self-esteem.

That chance encounter lead to a lifetime friendship between Tania and Jackie. From that point on, they corresponded constantly, until Jackie’s death in 1972.

A surprising, intimate portrait of an American hero and trailblazer as told through the eyes of an innocent young girl, who grew up to share this real’ side of Jackie Robinson.

About this title

From the Author:

Tania Grossinger is the author of the Skyhorse titles Growing up at Grossingers and Memoir of an Independent Woman; An Unconventional Life Well Lived. In addition to having published over 100 travel articles in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, she appeared on the Today show, Good Morning, America, 20/20, NPR, and over 150 national, syndicated and local TV and radio shows.

Charles George Esperanza was born the second of six kids. The South Bronx is where he first opened his eyelids. A land shrouded in bright colored decay, the birthplace of graffiti and the hip-hop DJ! Author and illustrator of the Sky Pony title Red, Yellow, Blue (and a dash of White too!) which was a Huffington Post best concept picture book, 2015. He lives in the Bronx, New York.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 2-4-In this slight memoir, Grossinger draws a parallel between her feelings of not belonging and Jackie Robinson's experience as an African American baseball player in the 1950s. When the star athlete and his family stayed at the hotel in the Catskill Mountains owned by her cousins, the Grossingers, Robinson took a personal interest in young Tania by playing a game of Ping-Pong and listening to her concerns about feeling "on the outside looking in," and the two became lifelong friends. Illustrations show that living in the Grossinger's "castle" was difficult for the shy, awkward youngster even though famous celebrities visited often. The stylized, almost impressionistic collage artwork makes the 13-year-old look very different from one page to the next. While youngsters will learn a bit of trivia about Jackie's uniform number 42 that is worn each year on April 15th, the day he first played with the Dodgers as the first black player in the National League, more-informative books are available for learning about his significance to the game of baseball, such as Sharon Robinson's Jackie Robinson: American Hero (Scholastic, 2013).-Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VAα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sky Pony
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1510712704
• ISBN 13: 9781510712706
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Esperanza Charles George