Testing the Ice: A True Story about Jackie Robinson

I purchased this book for my six year old grandson who is VERY involved in baseball. He loved the book. It is sturdy, just the right amount of text and the illustrations are exceptional.

I loved this book, I bought it for my five year old Grandson. The art work is beautiful and all most 3D.

I especially love sharing picture book biographies with young children. They are intrigued by the real stories, and the best of these books push students to think about bigger issues. Testing the Ice is a wonderful, stirring picture book by Sharon Robinson and Kadir Nelson that shares the story of Jackie Robinson with a young audience. Sharon Robinson, daughter of famed baseball player Jackie Robinson, wrote this book to teach kids about her father, but she focuses on a personal memory of her childhood to illustrate her father's strength and courage. With beautiful skill, Ms. Robinson draws us into her childhood memory of her father's achievements in baseball, but then she quickly focuses on moving to a lakeside home in Connecticut. Young readers learn about the Negro League through stories that her father told her friends. The children "all sat there wide-eyed, listening to his every word." When her father retired from baseball after the 1956 season, Sharon remembers spending more time together as a family, playing in the lake by their home. But her dad always found an excuse not to get in the water. The climax of the book happens that winter, when the children beg to go ice skating. The children watch Jackie venture onto the ice, and Sharon suddenly realizes -- her father doesn't know how to swim! Will he be OK? But Sharron's horror changes to relief as Jackie bravely taps his way to the middle of the lake -- and declare it safe! Not only does Ms. Robinson share a childhood memory, but she effectively builds a metaphor for breaking the color barrier. As she said in an interview on National Public Radio, "[This story] so perfectly defines Jackie Robinson the athlete, Jackie Robinson the husband, the father, the loving, the courageous, the caring," she says. "I wanted children to understand the totality of this man and how consistent he was in both his public persona and his personal one." The artwork by Kadir Nelson is at once inspiring and intimate. Nelson's pictures draw children into both what it would feel like to be a child in Robinson's family, but also some of the iconic images of the Robinson as a baseball player. Nelson particularly wanted to portray Jackie Robinson from the perspective of the children looking up to him. "He's like a father of a generation," he told Sharon Robinson.

I love watching fathers with their children. I was raised by a single mother and didn't know my father very well, so when I see dads interacting with their children, it always touches my heart. Maybe that's why I was so drawn to Testing the Ice by Sharon Robinson. In this beautifully illustrated picture book, Sharon gives children a glimpse into her life as the daughter of the legendary Jackie Robinson. She shares some special childhood memories of times with her father, and retells a touching story of the winter day she witnessed him "testing the ice." Though her father could not swim, he treads bravely over their iced-covered lake to ensure it was safe for skating. He showed his children courage in the face of fear as they looked on from the side of the lake. Sharon seamlessly draws a parallel between that act of bravery and Robinson's breaking of the color barrier in baseball. Watching him test the ice literally for them as he had tested it figuratively for so many others led her to a little girl's only logical conclusion about such a father, "My dad is the bravest man alive." The book is illustrated by Kadir Nelson. His illustrations have always been fascinating to me, and I have shared his work repeatedly in my classroom and with my own children. His vibrant and detailed illustrations help bring this heartwarming story to life. Robinson and Nelson are definitely a match made in literary heaven, and they've created something quite awe-inspiring.

I finished reading Testing the Ice with tears in my eyes. It is a moving tribute to a father, who just happens to be Jackie Robinson. It makes me proud to be a Dodgers fan. I would like to share this book with players on all teams. I think it is sometimes still difficult to be a player of color, whether African American or Dominican Republican. Those big guys might think picture books are just for kids, but they, too, will have tears in their eyes if they hear this story read by someone who has been touched by it. I had my doubts about reading this book to a fifth grade class because they tend to be rather cynical for such young people and didn't react strongly to a September 11th story I read them earlier, but they so enjoyed the book. There was not a sound in the room when Jackie walked out onto that ice. They were afraid the ice would break and were relieved when it didn't. Before I read the book to them I asked them if they knew who Jackie Robinson was and they did! In fact, they knew much more about his life than they knew about the events of September 11th. In this group there were just two African American students and they beamed when we talked about Jackie's bravery! They all also thought it was pretty cool that some of the illustrations Kadir Nelson painted were from Robinson family photos.