We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner)

by Kadir Nelson

Book Overview

In this New York Times bestselling classic, Caldecott Medal-winning artist Kadir Nelson tells the incredible story of baseball's unsung heroes -- perfect for celebrating the centennial anniversary of the Negro Leagues

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award and Robert F. Siebert Award as well as a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor

Featuring nearly fifty iconic oil paintings and a dramatic double-page...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786808322
• ISBN13: 9780786808328
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 2.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 11.3" x 11.1"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

We Are the Ship is a great read

Any baseball fan will lie this book So will anyone interested in Black History Month Kadir Nelson takes you far beyond Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neill to major leaguers you’ve likely never heard of His writing is powerful and is illustrations jump off the page Please enjoy and share Makes a great gift for any baseball fan of any age or background

This is a must own to read and to share

This is a marvelous book with literate text and outstanding art (I want a print of every illustration!) As a dyed in the wool baseball fan, I thought I was pretty aware of the Negro League - learned so much from this book - don't be mislead by the children's category - every adult I know who has seen it has bought it for themselves. I have this compulsion to stop perfect strangers on the street to tell them to read this.

A home run!

I actually met Kadir's mother some years ago and have always kept one of his illustrations on my desk. As luck would have it, I heard Kadir being interviewed on NPR and decided to buy this book for my son. Well, this was ALMOST a present not given, as I fell totally in love with the fine illustrations and moved by the sensitivity and honesty of the text. This book is an excellent resource, as well as a powerful visual display.

Required Reading

Every now and then a writer of children's books comes along that understands the truth of literature for kids....tell a compelling story with honesty and energy. If Kadir Nelson had only accomplished this "We Are The Ship" would be a great achievement. In actuality, the wonderful writing in this book is just the tip of the iceberg. You could remove every letter of text on every page and this work would still sing! Each painting carries the reader away to a time and a place in a way I've never experienced before. You can almost feel the sun on your back and the wind in your hair. Do not make the mistake of thinking this book is just for kids. Its for everyone.

Award Winner!

If a book will ever have a chance to win both a Newbery and a Caldecott - this is it! It better win at least one. A Coretta Scott King award is a slam dunk. Kadir Nelson is brilliant - as illustrator and writer. The early illustration of Jackie Robinson sliding home as a KC Monarch is just one of the opuses in the most unforgettable museum of illuminating art in a book! Bravo!

All else the sea

Nope. Sorry. Not fair. Kadir Nelson, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you've completely overdrawn your account in the creativity department. I could accept that you are one of the greatest living illustrators making his way today. I didn't even mind how young and talented you were. That was fine. But dude, did I actually have to learn that you were a remarkable writer as well? Now wait just one darn tooting minute here, buster. How fair is it that most of us schlubs can't drawn more than a stick figure or write more than a tortured haiku while you proceed to write AND illustrate what I'm going to have to call one of the greatest children's books of 2008? Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know how he has done it, but illustrator and first-time author Kadir Nelson brings us a baseball book that will make fans out the least sports-enthused children out there. Lush pictures, great text, and startling facts bring the story of Negro League baseball to life like never before. Rube Foster was the founder of the Negro National League. Said he of his men, "We are the ship: all else the sea." All long as there has been baseball in America there have been African-American ballplayers. Men like Sol White and Bud Fowler. Before Rube Foster, however, there was no organized professional league. Then, on February 20, 1920, Rube called together owners of black baseball teams, like himself, and the Negro National League began. Through the collective voice of the players, we hear about these years and these men who played together. We hear about amazing plays, crazy rules, outright characters, and the greats. We hear about the hardships of being a player, including the low pay and the dangers of playing in the South. Finally, the book ends with Jackie Robinson, the integration into Major League Baseball, and end of the Negro Leagues themselves. With footnotes, a mass of factual information, a disarmingly engaging style, and portraits that'll blow you away, Kadir Nelson has produced his opus and we're all invited to watch. We're living in an age where text and image are growing increasingly inextricable. Where a full-length novel like The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick can win a Caldecott and a Newbery winner like Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz is filled to brimming with illustration. Even graphic novels are gaining more and more respect every year. Into the midst of all this strides "We Are the Ship", and the result is a story that is just as strong visually as it is verbally. Turns out, there's plenty I didn't know about the Negro Leagues. You could fill a book with what I didn't know (ha ha). Sometimes the facts Mr. Nelson found struck me as particularly interesting, though. Here then is an encapsulation of a couple that I found out of the ordinary and fascinating. In brief: * Owners of Negro League teams, at the beginning, "couldn't afford to pay a man to just s