We Are the Ship

The Story of Negro League Baseball (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner)

In this New York Times bestselling classic, Caldecott Medal-winning artist Kadir Nelson tells the incredible story of baseball’s unsung heroes — perfect for celebrating the centennial anniversary of the Negro Leagues!

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award and Robert F. Siebert
 Award as well as a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor

Featuring nearly fifty iconic oil paintings and a dramatic double-page fold-out, an award-winning narrative, a gorgeous design and rich backmatter, We Are the Ship is a sumptuous, oversize volume for all ages that no baseball fan should be without. Using an inviting first-person voice, Kadir Nelson shares the engaging story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through its evolution, until after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947.

The story of Negro League baseball is the story of gifted athletes and determined owners, of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship, of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the twentieth century. But most of all, the story of the Negro Leagues is about hundreds of unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and low pay to do one thing they loved more than anything else in the world: play ball.
 
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Formats and Prices

Price

$21.99

Price

$28.99 CAD

Format

Hardcover

Format:

Hardcover $21.99 $28.99 CAD

Kadir Nelson

About the Illustrator

Kadir Nelson is the illustrator of many books for young readers, including the Caldecott Medal–winning The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander; the New York Times bestselling We Are the Ship, winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award and Illustrator Honor as well as the Sibert Award Medal; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford, which was an NAACP Image Award winner, Caldecott Honor Book, and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner. His work has appeared in many publications, including Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and The New Yorker. Nelson’s original paintings are in the permanent collections of the United States House of Representatives, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Kadir lives in Southern California and invites you to visit him online at kadirnelson.com.

Learn more about this illustrator