Charlie Takes His Shot

How Charlie Sifford Broke
the Color Barrier in Golf

Albert Whitman & Company

(pub. 1.1.2018)
 32 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthor:  Nancy Churnin
    and illustrator: John Joven

C haracter: Charlie Sifford

O verview from the jacket flap: 

     "As a kid, Charlie Sifford fell in love with golf. It wasn't long before he could strike the ball farther and truer than anyone on the course near his home. He won the Negro National Open so many times they told him to keep the trophy! But he couldn't play in a PGA tournament. The Professional Gofers' Association of America had a rule in their constitution: their members had to be white.
     But Charlie was determined to play in the PGA and win. It would be tough, but that didn't matter. The rule was wrong. Charlie would have to change things.
     Charlie would take his shot."

T antalizing taste: 
      

     "Another time when he went to putt his ball, someone kicked it far away.

     Charlie kept going. He practiced his swing. He studied courses to figure out the right club and angle for each shot.

     And he tried to close his ears to the jeers of people who didn't want him there."

 

and something more: In the Author's Note, Nancy Churnin explains that "in 2011 the Revolution Golf Course in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he had so much trouble finding a place to play golf growing up, was renamed the Dr. Charles L. Sifford Golf Course at Revolution Park. In 2014 President Barack Obama awarded Sifford the Presidential Medal of Freedom." Sifford died the next year at the age of ninety-two. I liked Nancy's acknowledgement: "Thank you, most of all, to Charlie Sifford, who fought a long, difficult fight with grace so that he could leave a better and fairer world to all children, including my own beloved [four] boys."

   

The William Hoy Story

How a Deaf Baseball Player
Changed the Game

Albert Whitman & Company
(published 3.1.2016) 32 pages 

A True Tale
with A Cherry On Top 

A uthor: Nancy Churnin
      and Illustrator: Jez Tuya

C haracter: William Hoy

O verview from the jacket flap: 

    "William Hoy led the National League in stolen bases in his rookie year. He had a strong, sure arm and a knack for catching fly balls. He was also deaf.
     William Ellsworth Hoy loved baseball more than anything. When he was told he was too short for his school team, he wouldn't let that stop him - he practiced and became good enough to play in the major leagues! Being deaf in the major leagues wasn't easy, since few people used sign language in the 1880s. William had a hard time reading lips on the field and some layers tried to trick him. But he wouldn't let that stop him either. William taught the umpires hand signals so he could see the calls, and then he really started to score!"
 
T antalizing taste: 
     
    "One day a pitcher played the meanest trick of all. William let three pitches go by because he thought they were balls. He was too far to read the umpire's lips and didn't know they were actually strikes. He stood, gripping his bat, waiting for the next pitch. But the next pitch never came. William was confused. Suddenly the pitcher burst out laughing. He pointed to the fans in the stands laughing too.  
     William's face grew hot. He walked off quickly. He wasn't going to cry. Not about baseball, he told himself.
     He jammed his hands in his pockets. Paper crunched against his fists. He pulled out a letter from his mother. He read again how much she missed him.
     William missed his family too. He remembered how his mom would raise her arms to applaud him.
     That's it! William pulled out his pad and drew pictures. He scribbled words next to the pictures. He wrote. He wrote. He WROTE! He ran to find the umpire.
     The umpire read William's notes.
     'Yes, that could work,' he said.
     The next time William was at bat, the umpire raised his right hand for a strike and his left for a ball.
     He used American Sign Language symbols for safe and out. This time William got on base. He stole bases. He scored!

and something more: I was interested to read in the Acknowledgments that the author explained that she and others are "campaigning to get William Hoy inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, where his story can continue to inspire anyone who has ever faced challenges in achieving his or her dreams."