We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Nelson, K. (2008). We are the ship. NY: Hyperion.

About the Book

The story of the Negro League Baseball is very informative. The history of baseball that is most familiar is Babe Ruth and other white baseball players. I appreciate this book being written and sharing the story of the first African American baseball players. I also found it very interesting that the Negro league players developed some of the first safety gear that is still used today. My family spends a lot of time enjoying baseball, it is much more meaningful now for me to know more history about the game. My appreciation for the differences that people in the past had to over come is humbling.

Nonfiction Evaluation Criteria

The layout of the story is in a pattern. Each new section is labeled like a new inning in a baseball game. The history of Negro League baseball is presented in a very respectable way that brings attention to a subject that is not spoken about very much.  The Organization of the book also includes a foreword, author's notes, acknowledgments, Bibliography, Filmography, End notes and an Index. The artful Design of the illustrations brings this book into a class of its own.