It is 1948 in Brook­lyn, New York. Steve is eight-years-old, Jew­ish, and lives for base­ball. His team is the Brook­lyn Dodgers. He and his bud­dy get into a lot of mis­chief. This under­mines Steve’s abil­i­ty to go to a Dodgers game because of the ensu­ing pun­ish­ment. Then some­thing unex­pect­ed and won­der­ful hap­pens. Jack­ie Robin­son, the first black play­er to play for the Major Leagues, becomes his neigh­bor. How­ev­er, before their move, the fact that a black fam­i­ly is mov­ing into a Jew­ish neigh­bor­hood is met by a peti­tion. Some neigh­bors are against his arrival. Nev­er­the­less, Steve’s family’s posi­tion is clear. The Jews suf­fered in Europe, came to Amer­i­ca for a bet­ter life, and they have an oblig­a­tion to sup­port hav­ing this black fam­i­ly who also faces dis­crim­i­na­tion move next to them. Of course, no one knew ini­tial­ly that Jack­ie Robin­son was the one mov­ing in. Steve devel­ops a rela­tion­ship with Jack­ie’s lit­tle son and is wel­comed into their home. Jack­ie becomes a role mod­el for him for how to deal with frus­tra­tion and dis­ap­point­ment and it makes an impact on the boy. Hav­ing Jack­ie as his friend also makes the child pop­u­lar with the bul­lies of the neigh­bor­hood and his class­mates at school.
On Christ­mas Eve, Steve helps Jack­ie’s fam­i­ly pre­pare their Christ­mas tree and the fol­low­ing day the ballplay­er gives Steve’s fam­i­ly a Christ­mas tree of their own. It is the first night of Hanukkah, the fam­i­ly is com­ing to cel­e­brate, and a Christ­mas tree, even as a gift, is not some­thing they want in their home. How to deal with this issue and not alien­ate the friend­ship with their well-mean­ing and famous neigh­bor is a prob­lem they must deal with in a tact­ful way.
Base­ball facts, inter­changes with famous play­ers of the day, and a look into the life of a base­ball celebri­ty, make this book a win­ner. The sto­ry is fic­tion but was based on a true sto­ry and incor­po­rates some fac­tu­al mate­r­i­al. It was writ­ten by Sharon Robin­son, Jack­ie’s daughter. 

Rec­om­mend­ed for chil­dren 8 to 12.