Robinson, Sharon 1950-

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Robinson, Sharon 1950-

Personal

Born January 13, 1950, in New York, NY; daughter of Jackie (a baseball player) and Rachel Robinson; married twice (both marriages ended); children: Jesse Simms. Education: Harvard University, B.S.; Columbia University, M.S.; University of Pennsylvania, certificate in teaching (nursing). Hobbies and other interests: Sports, reading.

Addresses

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Marie Brown, Marie Brown Associates, 625 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

Career

Writer and director of educational programming. Worked as a nurse midwife, beginning 1975; Yale University, New Haven, CT, assistant professor of nursing; also taught at Columbia University, Howard University, and Georgetown University. Jackie Robinson Foundation, member of board of directors. Major League Baseball, director of educational programming, beginning 1997; manager of Breaking Barriers: In Sports, in Life (multi-curricular character-education program).

Member

American College of Nurse-Midwives (member, board of directors).

Awards, Honors

Medaille College, D.L.H. honoris causa, 1998.

Writings

Stealing Home: An Intimate Family Portrait by the Daughter of Jackie Robinson, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By, Scholastic Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Still the Storm, Genesis Press (Columbus, MS), 2002.

Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America, Scholastic Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Safe at Home, Scholastic Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Slam Dunk!, Scholastic Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to a women's health textbook; contributor of articles to Essence magazine and to professional journals.

Sidelights

Sharon Robinson was born in 1950 to a famous father: Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play major-league baseball. She recounts what it was like for her and her brothers to grow up in the public environment that came with their father's pioneering achievement in the world of sports in her 1996 book, Stealing Home: An Intimate Family Portrait by the Daughter of Jackie Robinson. Robinson also returns to her father's legacy in Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By and Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America.

As Robinson reveals in Stealing Home, Jackie Robinson tried very hard to be a good family man and to give time and attention to his children despite his demanding career in professional baseball. Nevertheless, Sharon and her brothers, Jackie, Jr. and David, felt the strain of having to share their dad with his many admiring fans. As an adult, Sharon became a nurse midwife, and survived two failed marriages. In addition to the details of her life and her family's life in Stealing Home, she also includes a collection of family photographs that follow her father's career and his growing family. A Publishers Weekly critic responded favorably to the volume, predicting that Sharon Robinson's "loving biography" of her father "will add to his stature."

In Jackie's Nine Robinson presents a collection of essays on nine inspiring character traits that shaped her while growing up under her father's tutelage: courage, determination, teamwork, persistence, integrity, citizenship, justice, commitment, and excellence. As Robinson writes in the book, Jackie's Nine "presents values as principles by which to shape a life, rather than as mere buzz worlds." The text also describes the efforts the elder Robinson made to embody those traits, prompting readers "to nurture those same values within their own lives," according to Daniel R. Beach in Book Report.

Promises to Keep provides readers with insight into the active role the baseball legend played in fueling the civil rights movement. Here Robinson chronicles her father's legendary career and the trials he faced while growing up and encountered as he pursued his celebrated athletic career. "In captivating words and picture," the daughter includes telling glimpses into Robinson's life that reveal "information on the post-Civil War world, race relations, and the struggle for civil rights," commented Tracy Bell in School Library Journal. Gillian Engberg stated in Booklist that "there are numerous biographies about Robinson available for young people, but none have this book's advantage of family intimacy."

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Robinson turns to fiction in her middle-grade novels Safe at Home and Slam Dunk!, both of which feature sports themes. In Safe at Home ten-year-old Elijah Breeze moves with his recently widowed mom from their suburban home to Harlem, to live with his grandmother. Now the boy must deal with city culture in addition to his grief over his dad's death. A summer spent at neighborhood baseball camp crystallizes Elijah's feelings as well as his difficulty in finding his place in his new life. His ability to overcome the threats of a bullying campmate and develop the skills needed to make him a valuable team member ultimately symbolize the boy's emotional growth in a novel that a Publishers Weekly critic dubbed "a solid first novel about a likable 10-year-old who comes to terms with some big changes." In School Library Journal Jack Forman praised Safe at Home as a "quick-reading" story in which middle-grade readers will enjoy spending time with Robinson's "intriguing protagonists."

Elijah returns in Slam Dunk! A year older and now enrolled at Harlem's Langston Hughes Middle School, the boy is now nicknamed "Jumper" due to his skill on the basketball court. When the girl's basketball team beats the boys in a school exhibition game, Elijah's friend Nia—who organized the winning girls' team—decides to take her win on the court and use it to compete with Elijah in his bid for student-council representative. In Booklist Stephanie Zvirin praised Slam Dunk! as "an amiable story about friends who stay that way, a theme that translates well in any community." Robinson's well-paced novel is enriched by what a Kirkus Reviews writer described as "thoughtful moments where heartfelt revelations expertly transition to more complexities." As the critic concluded, Slam Dunk! "warrants a third installment" recounting Elijah's middle-school adventures.

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Robinson, Sharon, Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1996, review of Stealing Home: An Intimate Family Portrait by the Daughter of Jackie Robinson, p. 1628; July, 2001, John Peters, review of Jackie's Nine: Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By, p. 2004; February 15, 2004, Gillian Engberg, review of Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America, p. 1077; September 1, 2007, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Slam Dunk!, p. 136.

Book Report, September-October, 2001, Daniel R. Beach, review of Jackie's Nine, p. 72.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January, 2007, Elizabeth Bush, review of Safe at Home, p. 74.

Emerge, October, 1996, review of Stealing Home, p. 73.

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2004, review of Promises to Keep, p. 88; August 1, 2007, review of Slam Dunk!

Kliatt, September, 2007, KaaVonia Hinton, review of Slam Dunk!, p. 17.

Library Journal, June 15, 1996, review of Stealing Home, p. 72.

New York Times Book Review, November 3, 1996, review of Stealing Home, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, May 14, 2001, review of Jackie's Nine, p. 84; February 9, 2004, review of Promises to Keep, p. 82; August 21, 2006, review of Safe at Home, p. 69.

School Library Journal, June, 2001, review of Jackie's Nine, p. 180; March, 2004, Tracy Bell, review of Promises to Keep, p. 242; October, 2006, review of Safe at Home, p. 168; November, 2007, Debbie Whitbeck, review of Slam Dunk!, p. 136.