In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson ANNOTATION
In 1947, a Chinese child comes to Brooklyn where she becomes Americanized at school, in her apartment building, and by her love for baseball.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Shirley Temple Wong sails from China to America with a heart full of dreams. Her new home is Brooklyn, New York. America is indeed a land full of wonders, but Shirley doesn't know any English, so it's hard to make friends. Then a miracle - baseball - happens. It is 1947, and Jackie Robinson, star of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is everyone's hero. Jackie Robinson is proving that a black man, the grandson of a slave, can make a difference in America. And for Shirley as well, on the ball field and off, America becomes the land of opportunity.
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Dr. Judy Rowen
Sixth Cousin moves from Chungking to New York to rejoin her father who had emigrated from China one year before. She renames herself Shirley Temple Wong to fit in better, but soon finds out that she still doesn't quite belong. Baseball becomes her ticket to integration; this was the year that Jackie Robinson proved that the U.S. was truly a land where everyone counted.
Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin
In Bette Bao Lord's wonderful In The Year Of The Boar And Jackie Robinson, Shirley Temple Wong recites, "I pledge a lesson to the frog of the United States of America, and to the wee puppet for witches hands...."
AudioFile - Jennifer J. Frick
The year of 1947 frames this young Chinese girlﾽs experience of leaving her clan in China and settling in Brooklyn, New York, with her parents. The journey through the eyes of this 10-year-old is made especially poignant by the warm, whimsical reading of Christina Moore. Her light voice is perfectly suited to a young girlﾽs but also can stretch from that of a toddler to that of a Chinese patriarch. Her accents Chinese, Spanish, Brooklyn are as pleasing to the ear as the lyrical language used in the story. This story about growing up, about cultural extremes, about heroes, baseball and the American dream will bring the listener to laughter and tears on every tape. J.J.F. ﾽAudioFile, Portland, Maine
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