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In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson | Bette Bao Lord
6 posts | 16 read | 6 to read
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.
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blurb
ahoffkosik
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There‘s something magical about a book for kiddos that manages to capture everything from the joy of baseball to the complexities of the American dream — and Bette Bao Lord pulled it off in 1984 with In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. This week on my book pod, author Traci Chee joins me for a deep dive into this gem of a story. ⚾️ Link to listen in my bio!

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balletbookworm
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Pickpick

Re-reading, almost 30 extra years of life experience brings out details I missed: Shirley being just thrown into fifth grade despite the fact that she knows almost no English, how diverse her classroom is, and how some of the language the American kids use hints at larger issues of discrimination (such as telling Shirley to go back to the laundry). But Shirley's story feels so universal, being the new kid and wanting to belong so very, very badly.

balletbookworm Read as my last book needed for @bookriot Read Harder challenge 👍🏻 7y
Bradleygirl I loved this in grade school! Good young people lit remains resonant. 7y
23 likes2 comments
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PatienceFortitude
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Pickpick

So much a pick! Give it to kids... and it's a lovely, kind story to read as an adult. Highly recommended

6 likes1 stack add
quote
PatienceFortitude
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Suddenly Shirley understood why her father had brought her 10,000 miles to live among strangers. Here, she did not have to wait for gray hairs to be considered wise. Here, she could speak up, question even the conduct of the President. Here, Shirley Temple Wong was somebody. She felt as if she had the power of ten tigers, as if she had grown as tall as the Statue of Liberty. #America #immigrants #important

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PatienceFortitude
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Revisiting an old favorite from my childhood. I had forgotten that it began with the Chinese new year! Timely! #24in48 #selfcare

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GlitteryOtters
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My favorite of all my childhood #diversebooks for today's #seasonsreadings2016. #weneeddiversebooks

Imagineannie I love that book. 8y
RealLifeReading You did it again! Every time your posts come up I wonder, is she gonna bring to my attention yet another author/book I've not heard of? 8y
ultrabookgeek I forgot about this book! It was one of my favorites growing up!!! 8y
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Blaire Never heard of this one, and my son loves Jackie Robinson. On the tbr it goes. 8y
GlitteryOtters @RealLifeReading I am one of those people who falls madly in love with books & holds onto them right forever once I am smitten, so I have a lot of older books I think everyone else has forgotten. This book was SO good! I was raised in a neighborhood that was roughly 1/3 Caucasian, 1/3 Hispanic, and 1/3 Asian kids, yet I never saw my Hispanic or Asian friends represented in kids lit, so frustrating to me! When I saw this one, I had to have it! 8y
GlitteryOtters @Blaire it is so good! I hope you guys like it! 8y
GlitteryOtters @ultrabookgeek mine too!! It was the first book I encountered (past picture book age) with an Asian kid as the main character. As I grew up in a multiethnic neighborhood & had a Vietnamese best friend, I was SO excited to find a book with an Asian main character & bought it immediately at my school's book sale, even though I had been planning to buy a different book (I was allowed one book purchase). So glad I switched my purchase, it is so good💕 8y
44 likes6 stack adds7 comments