Crystal Hubbard, illustrated by Randy DuBurke,
Catching the Moon: The Story of A Young Girl’s Baseball Dream
Lee & Low Books, 2005.
Ages 6 to 10
Could there be anything better than the sting of the ball in your palm, the taste of dust sliding into home base, the thrill of tagging someone out? Not for Marcenia Lyle. She loves baseball more than anything in the world. She dreams at night of playing professional ball, and lives for afternoon games on the playground, despite initial objections from the boy players and constant disapproval from her parents. They want her to focus on school, and on traditional jobs for girls: teacher, nurse, or maid.
Then one day, Gabby Street comes to visit. Mr. Street is the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. He wants kids for his baseball camp! Marcenia has never run so fast, thrown so hard, or hit so far as she does that day. But despite proving herself the best player out there, Mr. Street says no. Girls don’t play baseball. If she’s ever going to achieve her dream, she has to find a way to convince both Mr. Street and her father that girls should be able to play baseball, too.
Set in the 1930s, Catching the Moon tells the true story of Marcenia Lyle, the African-American girl who grew up to become the first woman on an all-male professional baseball team. Named one of Bank Street College’s Children’s Books of the Year, Catching the Moon is an inspiring tale of grit, heart, hope, and most of all, determination to dream. Randy DuBurke’s luminous ink and acrylic images vibrate with Marcenia’s energy on the field, while the soft blues and browns of his color palette channel her sadness when it appears she has no options left. An afterward explains how Marcenia Lyle, under the name Toni Stone, became the first female member of an all-male baseball team, and even went on to fill in Hank Aaron’s place in the Major Leagues. Crystal Hubbard captures both the irrepressible obsession of the baseball fan and the challenges of being young and dreaming big, even if it means defying adult expectations. Children will cheer for Marcenia as she succeeds despite the odds, in turn encouraged to follow their own dreams of greatness.
Sara Hudson
April 2011
The Last Black King of the Kentucky Derby: The Story of Jimmy Winkfield
Author: Crystal Hubbard
Illustrator: Robert McGuire
Publisher: Lee & Low Books, September 2008
Reading Level: 4-8
I'm a firm believer that young readers see sports as fun, not as a history lesson to be learned. That's why I think books like The Last Black King of the Kentucky Derby: The Story of Jimmy Winkfield are so important for young readers. Hubbard has created a fun sports book that shares the history of the first black horse racing jockey to win two Kentucky Derby's.
Born into an African American sharecropping family in 1880s Kentucky, Jimmy Winkfield grew up loving horses. The large, powerful animals inspired little Jimmy to think big. Looking beyond his family's farm, he longed for a life riding on action-packed racetracks around the world. At age 16 while working as a stable hand and exercise rider, Wink attracted notice from a horse trainer who asked him to race one of his horses in Illinois. Unfortunately Wink's first race resulted in a collision involving multiple horses and jockeys, and he was suspended from racing for a year. But that didn't stop Wink from pursuing his goal. Along the way he carved out a lasting legacy as one of history's finest horsemen and the last African American ever to win the Kentucky Derby.
Young readers will enjoy learning as I did that African-American jockeys dominated the early years of the Kentucky Derby. Thirteen of the 15 riders in the first Derby in 1875 were black, and blacks won 15 of the Derby's first 28 runnings. James Winkfield was the last black jockey to win the Derby, riding consecutive champions in 1901-02. By the early 1900s, the presence of black riders and trainers in the Derby began decreasing, largely because of resentment from the white racing community and the migration of blacks from Southern farms to Northern cities. Nowadays, there aren't many black exercise riders and supposedly, that's how many successful jockeys start.
I think this book stands out from the rest of African-American history books because one often thinks that when the first African-American breaks into something, it paves the way for others, but this was not the case in horse racing. By 1903, African American jockeys had become obsolete and Wink's 1902 victory would be the last Derby win ever by an African American jockey. The writing is superb, putting you right on the track in "the clouds of dirt and the spray of horse sweat." In the illustrations, you can feel the horses kicking up the dirt and the triumph when Wink wins the Derby! I can't say enough positive things about this book and highly recommend it, even if you're not a horse-racing fan.
Read an interview at Lee & Low Books with the author.
Learn about African Americans in the Derby.
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