ISBN: 978-0-7868-3900-1
Book Website: http://cartoonstudies.org/books/paige/
My Personal Top Ten
Author: James Sturm
Website: http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/artStudio.php?artist=a3dff7dd55f39b
Illustrator: Rich Tommaso
Website: http://richtommaso.com/home/
Media Used (discussed in detail): James Sturm, who is a cartoonist, provided pencil drawn drafts of the story for Rich Tommaso to use as a guide. Tommaso used both pen and brush in developing the final illustrations. Photos from the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) Collection provided the artists with visual references of how rural life was like during the Jim Crow years. Tommaso studied the lighting and composition of Thomas Hart Benton which influenced the book's style. The illustrations in this book definitely set the moods found in the story. The images of Paige tying his shoes, stretching, and moving the dirt highlight how methodical and unrushed he was regardless of who he was pitching to or who was talking to him. The fact that each of Paige's motions, from adjusting his belt to raising his hands to lifting his leg, is illustrated in a separate panel makes you feel the hitter's anxiety and Paige's slowness during his windup while quick transition of the ball then appearing in the catcher's glove illustrates how fast Paige could throw the ball. My favorite set of panels was when Emmet was fading in and out from the pain of breaking his knee. Anyone who has been knocked out and has had people standing over them will relate to those panels. The other panel that really jerked at my emotions was the lynching scene on page 37. Even though the author had been hinting at it in the text and the illustrator placed the panel last in a 2 page spread, it still seemed to sneak up on me which drove home the reality of the terrible injustices that were happening at that time.
Summary: Baseball hall-of-famer Leroy "Satchel" Paige's story, told from a fictional sharecropper's point of view. During his career he played for dozens of teams, was one of the Negro Leagues’ fastest pitchers, and played as a major league pitcher.
Personal Reaction: I have a soft spot for sports of all kinds in my life, but baseball and softball have always been my favorites. So you would think that I would enjoy reading sports themed books, but that is usually not the case. This book's text and illustrations captured the feelings and emotion of the game, as well as that of the time period, extremely well. I would definitely recommend this book to a baseball or softball fan who is learning about this time in American History. This is probably best used as a book for older readers (8th grade and up) because of the lynching scene, the scene where Emmet's son gets beaten up, and the one instance of the N-word being used. A younger audience might not understand the context of these scenes within this time period. Use of Repetition: (1) The illustrations of the catcher with the ball in the glove is repeated to stress that Paige pitched so fast the ball just seemed to appear in the catcher's glove. (2) The re-occurring illustrations of Paige's pitching motions which show how he moved at his own pace and no one else's.
Lesson Plan #4: Segregation
Curricular Connection: 8th Grade American History
California Standard 8.11.3: Understand the effects of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the restrictions placed on the rights and opportunities of freedmen, including racial segregation and "Jim Crow" laws.
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