Much has been written about Jackie Robinson’s athletic career and his breakthrough role as an African American ballplayer into a strictly segregated sport. But in this picture book Robert Burleigh chooses to spotlight just a few seconds in the athlete’s life: the time it takes Robinson to steal home during game one of the 1955 World Series. Tension runs high when Robinson leaves third base “bursting suddenly in two strides from absolute stillness to full speed, until there is nothing now but the tiny ball and the all-out sprinting man blurring toward the crouched catcher.” While Burleigh’s poetic words tell the story of Robinson’s famous steal in large font, additional information about the man’s lifetime accomplishments can be found on each page in small type cleverly contained within a baseball card-shaped box. Oil paintings capture the energy and excitement of the moment in many tightly focused scenes of Robinson and other Yankee and Dodger players, and of the fans, whose faces clearly reflect the importance of the man’s achievement in their own lives. (Ages 7–11)

Man on third. Two outs. The pitcher eyes the base runner, checks for the sign. The fans in the jammed stadium hold their breath. Flapping his outstretched arms like wings, number 42 leads off again. It is September 1955, game one of the World Series, the Yankees versus the Dodgers, and Jackie Robinson is about to do the unbelievable. Attempt to steal home. In a World Series game. To race a baseball thrown from the pitcher's mound and win! Is it possible? Yes, it is -- if you are Jackie Robinson!