Chappie and Me: An Autobiographical Novel

by John Craig

A young, white first-baseman, masquerading under a veneer of black shoe polish, joins Chappie Johnson's Colored All-Stars in the summer of 1939, six years before the lifting of the color barrier

247 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

John Ernest Craig was Canadian writer of novels, thrillers, children's and YA.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book 25 years ago when I was a teen. I'm amazed how much has stuck with me over the years. I rememered whole scenes, but I was afraid my memory was playing tricks on me so I got the book again and discovered that I remembered most of the book correctly. I'm now sharing it with my sons because it is a wonderful book to help explain segregation, the Great Depression, the North American build-up toward World War Two and a host of other events and issues from our past. And the book tells a great story too!

[Liam Card · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating journey surrounding the tale of a white baseball player who, with the use of lamp black, colours his face and arms in order to play on an all-black, travelling baseball team. An amazing look at what baseball (and life) was like for these travelling barnstormers at a time when racism, Jim Crow, and black entrances were a disturbing reality. A great book. I flew through it.

[Ron Kaplan · Rating 2 out of 5]

fiction

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, gentle book that captures a time (1939) when barnstorming black baseball teams were a feature of small-town American life.