Roy Campanella: Major-League Champion (Rookie Biography)

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Summary: A great introduction for young kids to the story of "Campy"
Review: Roy Campanella spent half of his life in a wheelchair after he was paralyzed in a car accident that ended his Hall of Fame baseball career. One of the things that always impressed me about Campy was that when he was a rookie catcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers at the age of 24, he had already been playing professional baseball in the Negro Leagues for nine years. "Roy Campanella: Major-League Champion" by Carol Greene is part of the Rookie Biography series for very young readers. Filled with black & white photographs covering Campy's entire life (including his recovering in the hospital after the accident), Greene focuses on the challenges he faced in becoming a Major League ballplayer, his great success with the Dodgers including three Most Valuable Player Awards, and the final challenge of coping with living the rest of his life in a wheelchair. The story of Roy Campanella's life always reminds me of that of Lou Gehrig; the great athlete who is career is ended by a tragic twist of fate. Greene does a nice job of showing that Campy was not only a great ballplayer, but a great man as well. This is an ideal book to introduce young readers to Campy's life.