We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball was written and illustraded by Kadir Nelson.  It is the winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for writing in 2009, and it also received the illustrating honor for the award in the same year.

  The history of the Negro Baseball League is told from the perspective of players in the league in this vivid recounting of the trials and struggles of a group of men who were not willing to give up on the game they loved.  From racism and prejudice to rugged travel conditions this retrospective told in the first person gives a detailed account of the players who loved the game and their experiences with all of the ins and outs and good and bad of playing in the league.  As a part of America's past, this book could serve as a historical presentation of the events and people that shaped a very big part of the sport of basesball.

 

Teaching literary elements with this book would be more of a challenge, but point of view and symbolism are two that could be easily done.  The illustrations in the book are beautiful oil paintings and add so much to the setting and characters and bring them to life.

 

Nelson, K. (2008). We are the ship: the story of Negro League baseball. New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children.