Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson A True Story About Jackie Robinson

When Jackie Robinson retires from baseball andmoves his family to Connecticut, the beautiful lakeon their property is the center of everyone’s fun.The neighborhood children join the Robinson kidsfor swimming and boating. But oddly, Jackie nevergoes near the water.In a dramatic episode that first winter, Jackie iscalled upon to test the ice on the lake, to make sureit’s safe for ice-skating. But why, Sharon wonders,is he always so afraid to go near the water?In a stunning metaphor for Jackie Robinson’slegendary breaking of the color barrier in MajorLeague Baseball, Ms. Robinson honors herextraordinary father’s memory with her warm,graceful storytelling. Two-time Caldecott HonorBook artist Kadir Nelson has created richly renderedpaintings that radiate with the beauty and spirit ofone of America’s finest heroes.

Sharon Robinson is an educational consultant for Major League Baseball and vice chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. She founded Major League Baseball’s Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life, a national character education program designed to teach children the values and traits they need to deal with barriers and challengers in their lives. She is the author of many widely praised nonfiction and fiction novels including Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America as well as two middle-grade novels, Safe at Home and Slam Dunk, with cover art by Kadir Nelson. Ms. Robinson divides her time between New York City and Florida.

Kadir Nelson used Jackie Robinson’s personal family photographs as inspiration for his artwork in Testing the Ice: A True Story about Jackie Robinson. His many award-winning books include two Caldecott Honor books, Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, written by Ellen Levine, and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, written by Carole Boston Weatherford. His own book, We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book and received the Coretta Scott King Author Award.