"Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series" by Traci Sorell, with illustrations by Arigon Starr, offers an engaging story that intertwines the worlds of sports, culture, and history. It tells the inspiring tale of two Native American athletes who navigated obstacles to reach the pinnacle of baseball success, the World Series. This text serves as a valuable educational tool for students, allowing them to explore themes of diversity, determination, and the significance of representation in sports and society. Through guided discussions, interactive activities, and additional research, students can delve deeper into the rich tapestry of Indigenous experiences, learn about sportsmanship, and draw inspiration from tales of resilience. ( )

Two Native American baseball players, Charles Bender and John Meyers. They grew up differently and not with lots of money and they loved playing baseball and eventually played in the World Series against each other. Good for older elementary school kids who like stories about overcoming challenges and achieving big dreams.

A really good book read, Contenders is a book about baseball players Charles Bender and John Meyers. Bothe of these men are of Native American heritage and both grew up in reservations. The book follows both of them through their lives and talks about their challenges and perseverance to be able to make it to the major league to eventually play against one another. I think this book is a perfect read for late grade school students.

Profiles of the first two Native players to make history by facing off in a World Series: Charles Bender and John Meyers.

Properly rejecting the conventional sobriquets (both were often referred to as “Chief” in newspapers despite not being tribal leaders) as inaccurate and disrespectful and using her subjects’ given names (or childhood nicknames) throughout, Sorell weaves into her brief but suspenseful recap of the 1911 Series accounts of both men’s paths to the major leagues. Bender left the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota to pitch for the Philadelphia Athletics after escaping abusive experiences both at home, from his German American father, and in a boarding school; Meyers resisted “pressure to adopt white people’s norms” as he left the Cahuilla reservation in California for spots on several semipro teams and then spoke out against injustices against Native people as a catcher for the New York Giants. Adding carefully authenticated Ojibwe and Cahuilla motifs on framing borders, Starr offers a set of clean-lined on-field tableaux, montages, and baseball card–style portraits of the chiseled players in period uniforms. Though the author does give her stars’ later careers (and, in a closing timeline, lives) quick overviews, the story she tells is at least as much about racism as it is about baseball, with several references to “slights and slurs” along with documented prejudicial quotes and headlines from the time identified as “insults.” Nor has the onslaught let up significantly: “From peewee to professional levels,” she concludes, “no other athletes in the United States face the kind of sanctioned mocking and dishonor of their culture that Native players do.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A lesser-known but significant encounter with all-too-current resonances. (author’s note, quotes, sources) (Informational picture book. 7-10)

-Kirkus Revuew