Charley just moved into a new neighborhood. He is the only black kid, and also has the only black family in the neighborhood. He finds things are harder than he had imagined. He dosen't understand how kids can exclude someone for the color of their skin. He likes himself, but for some reason other kids don't. He has only one friend, which is his best friend but even he does not know what Charley's going through.

I guess I went into this book with the wrong expectations. I thought this would be a book about Jackie Robinson. But it was almost exclusively about Sharon, his daughter. And though she had an interesting life, I feel like her book didn't go far beyond the surface.

I felt like she really didn't know her father all that well, or at least she didn't express that in the story. I have no doubt that Jackie Robinson was as great a man as the public believed him to be. However after reading this book, it seems like Sharon got parts of her life from reading articles from past newspapers. I don't feel like I understand the workings of her family any better than I would if I had simply watched old news clips.

I wasn't ever bored with the book and I am glad that the Robinson's were a functionsl black family amidst so much external societal strife. Sharon does do a good job of showing the rest of us the priveleages and the tribulations of being the child of a famous African-A! merican in the 1950's and 60's. She also shows that there are still racial conflicts even when blacks and whites are on the same economic level. Overall its a B+, Robinson was not only a premiere ballplayer, but an outstanding father!