You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!
10 best books like You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?! (Jonah Winter): The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors, Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride, Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: a Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix, The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau, John Brown: His Fight for Freedom, Eleanor, Quiet No More, Colorful Dreamer: The Story of Artist Henri Matisse, She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story, Sandy's Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder, Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen
A discovery that made the world a brighter place!
Joe and Bob Switzer were very different brothers. Bob was a studious planner who wanted to grow up to be a doctor. Joe dreamed of making his fortune in show business and loved magic tricks and problem-solving.
When an accident left Bob...
| Author | Andrea Davis Pinkney |
| ISBN | 0786807679 |
Born into slavery, Belle had to endure the cruelty of several masters before she escaped to freedom. But she knew she wouldn't really be free unless she was helping to end injustice. That's when she changed her name to Sojourner and began traveling across the country, demanding equal rights for black...
| Author | Gary Golio |
| ISBN | 0618852794 |
Jimi Hendrix was many things: a superstar, a rebel, a hero, an innovator. But first, he was a boy named Jimmy who loved to draw and paint and listen to records. A boy who played air guitar with a broomstick and longed for a real guitar of his own. A boy who asked himself a question: Could someone paint pictures...
The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau
| Author | Dan Yaccarino |
| ISBN | 0375855734 |
Jacques Cousteau was the world s ambassador of the oceans. His popular TV series brought whales, otters, and dolphins right into people s living rooms. Now, in this exciting picturebook biography, Dan Yaccarino introduces young readers to the man behind the snorkel.
From the first moment he got...
| Author | John Hendrix |
| ISBN | 0810937980 |
Published on the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, this biography explores the life of one of American history’s most controversial figures. A great deal of academic study has been published recently about John Brown. This is the first book for young readers to include these...
| Author | Doreen Rappaport |
| ISBN | 0786851414 |
Eleanor Roosevelt was raised in a privileged but stern Victorian household, with an affectionate but mostly absent father and a critical mother who made fun of her daughter's looks. Alone and lonely for much of her childhood, Eleanor found solace in books and in the life of her lively and independent...
| Author | Marjorie Blain Parker |
| ISBN | 0803737580 |
An inspiring portrait of one of the world's most loved artists
There was once a boy named Henri, whose dreams were full of color even though his hometown was dreary and gray. His parents expected him to learn a trade when he grew up, but being a law clerk bored him, and he continued to dream of a colorful,...
She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story
| Author | Audrey Vernick |
| ISBN | 0061349208 |
"A wonderful picture book biography. Little girls will be inspired."*
Effa always loved baseball. As a young woman, she would go to Yankee Stadium just to see Babe Ruth’s mighty swing. But she never dreamed she would someday own a baseball team. Or be the first—and only—woman ever inducted...
| Author | Tanya Lee Stone |
| ISBN | 0670062685 |
As a boy, Alexander (Sandy) Calder was always fiddling with odds and ends, making objects for friends. When he got older and became an artist, his fiddling led him to create wire sculptures. One day, Sandy made a lion. Next came a lion cage. Before he knew it, he had an entire circus and was traveling between...
| Author | Marissa Moss |
| ISBN | 0689863292 |
An ALA Notable Children’s Book
An ILA Teachers’ Choice
A Read Aloud/Comstock Honor Book
An ALA Amelia Bloomer Project Book
For as long as she could remember, Jackie Mitchell’s father had told Jackie she could be good at whatever she wanted, as long as she worked at it. Jackie...
| Author | Shana Corey |
| ISBN | 0439698359 |
A fun, feel-good, "underdog" story about a little-known female athlete whose derring-do transformed girls' sports.
Are you brave enough to make a wave? If you love sports and people who aren't afraid to swim against the tide, Annette Kellerman and her freestyle approach to life will make...
| Author | Matt Tavares |
| ISBN | 0763632244 |
Matt Tavares hits one out of the park with this powerful tale of a kid from the segregated south who would become baseball’s home-run king.
Before he was Hammerin’ Hank, Henry Aaron was a young boy grow ing up in Mobile, Alabama, with what seemed like a foolhardy dream: to be a big-league baseball...
Here's an ingenious historical fiction picture book about the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It’s a tale of two boys who get themselves into more trouble than bear cubs in a candy store.
The year is 1816. Abe is only seven years old, and his pal, Austin, is ten. Abe and...
| Author | Leda Schubert |
| ISBN | 1596435291 |
Marcel Marceau, the world's most famous mime, enthralled audiences around the world for more than fifty years. When he waved his hand or lifted his eyebrow he was able to speak volumes without ever saying a word. But few know the story of the man behind those gestures . . . Distinguished author Leda Schubert...
| Author | David A. Kelly |
| ISBN | 0761380922 |
Lena Blackburne loved baseball. He watched it, he played it, he coached it. But he didn't love the ways players broke in new baseballs. Tired of soggy, blackened, stinky baseballs, he found a better way. Thanks to a well-timed fishing trip and a top-secret mud recipe, Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing...
| Author | Robert Andrew Parker |
| ISBN | 0375839658 |
Regardless of whether they’ve heard of jazz or Art Tatum, young readers will appreciate how Parker uses simple, lyrical storytelling and colorful and energetic ink-and-wash illustrations to show the world as young Art Tatum might have seen it. Tatum came from modest beginnings and was nearly...
| Author | Barbara Kerley |
| ISBN | 0545125081 |
From the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor-winning team behind WHAT TO DO ABOUT ALICE?, a humorous and intimate portrait of the most celebrated writer in America, as told by his thirteen-year-old daughter.
"This is a frank biographer and an honest one; she uses no sandpaper on me." - Mark Twain
An...
| Author | Robert Burleigh |
| ISBN | 1416967338 |
“Hearts will be racing.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A work to inspire further learning.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Vivid.” —The Horn Book
A picture book biography of the first woman in flight—Amelia Earhart—by NCTE Orbis Pictus Award-winner...
| Author | Marc Tyler Nobleman |
| ISBN | 0375838023 |
JERRY SIEGEL AND Joe Shuster, two misfit teens in Depression-era Cleveland, were more like Clark Kent—meek, mild, and myopic—than his secret identity, Superman. Both boys escaped into the worlds of science fiction and pulp magazine adventure tales. Jerry wrote stories, and Joe illustrated...
| Author | Matthew McElligott |
| ISBN | 0802797687 |
When Ant receives a special invitation to dine with Lion, she is ready to be on her best behavior. During dessert, the other guests do not mind their manners, each one taking half of the remaining cake as it is passed around. By the time it reaches Ant, barely a crumb is left for her to share with the King! She...
The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum
| Author | Kathleen Krull |
| ISBN | 0375832165 |
KATHLEEN KRULL'S LIVELY text traces the life of L. Frank Baum from his dreamy privileged childhood in mid-19th-century upstate New York through the many detours on his road to Oz. A failure as an actor, a breeder of prize chickens, a merchant in a wild west town, among other occupations, he finally made...
Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything
| Author | Maira Kalman |
| ISBN | 0399240403 |
Renowned artist Maira Kalman sheds light on the fascinating life and interests of the Renaissance man who was our third president.
Thomas Jefferson is perhaps best known for writing the Declaration of Independence—but there’s so much more to discover. This energetic man was interested...
Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man
| Author | David A. Adler |
| ISBN | 0152024832 |
This biography traces Gehrig’s life, from childhood through his illustrious career with the Yankees to his struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and his tragic death at age thirty-seven. Expressive illustrations capture the strength, modesty, and dignity for which this remarkable man...
