Hammerin' Hank: The Life of Hank Greenberg

by Yona Zeldis McDonough, Malcah Zeldis (Illustrator)

Meet one of America's earliest Jewish-American heroes. The 1930s were a time when "outsiders" were not welcome in Major League Baseball. Henry Benjamin Greenberg began as one of those outsiders, but went on to become one of baseball's greatest right-handed batters. Hammerin' Hank dominated baseball from 1933 to 1948 and was eventually inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But Hank Greenberg was more than an amazing athlete. While Jews had been playing baseball since the 1800s, Hammerin' Hank was baseball's first Jewish superstar.

Genres: Childrens, Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 2006

About the author

I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn and many of my novels take place here. But my new novel takes place in New Hampshire, and I have woven into it a historical component: the tragic story of Ruth Blay, who in 1768 was the last woman hanged in the state. When I read about Ruth, I was fascinated and horrified in equal measure, and I knew I had to write about her.
I was educated at Vassar College and Columbia University, where I studied art history. But I started writing fiction in my 20's and never looked back. I am the author of seven novels, 27 books for children and am the editor of two essay collections. I'm also the fiction editor of Lilith Magazine . Please visit my website, http://www.yonazeldismcdonough.com or find me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/yzmcdonough; I love to connect with readers everywhere.

Reviews

[Caitlin Lawler]

Hammerin’ Hank, The Life of Hank Greenberg by Yona Zeldis McDonough and illustrated by Malcah Zeldis is the story of Hank Greenberg a jewish man trying to make it in the major leagues. As a young boy Hank was much taller than everyone making him clumsy all except for when he was playing baseball. Baseball was his dream but his parents thought it was useless so he took to basketball instead even getting a scholarship for it at college. Baseball was still his passion so he dropped out and tried out for the major league. He was put in the minor league instead and worked his way up to the major leagues. He spent most of his career facing anti semitism views, breaking records and choosing between games and religious ceremonies.

The illustrations throughout the book are more childlike and animated with use of majority primary colors. The first page gives background info and the text is in italics so the reader knows its different from the actual story because the rest of text is block lettering. Each chunk of text is a pretty has a hefty amount so it is most likely geared towards older kids. The author use of direct quotes to interest the reader. In the illustrations, Hank appears so much larger than the other people on the pages, this is not only illustrate his size and really emphasize how tall he was but it is also to make him the central focus of the page. Although the illustrations are simple, the pictures include a lot of realistic elements about the setting and time period and includes consistent use of dates throughout the story. Through Hanks story children can see that they should never give up on their dreams because they can always be achieved.

[Rosa Cline]

4 star

Ms McDonough is very good at writing about people who have had to struggle against segregation in any form. The biographies written by her are always thorough and never leaves the reader wondering what happened before or after the person became famous.

This one is about a famous baseball player that was a Jew. He was segregated against just as much as if he was a black man. But he over came those negative people against him to make some records. Nice read.