Details
Synopsis
In Cincinnati in 1927, paperboy Willie Brinkman tries to sell extras on the Dempsey-Tunney boxing match in his workingman's neighborhood.
| Size | | Length: | 31 pages | | Height: | 12.0 in | | Width: | 9.5 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 16.8 oz |
Industry Reviews
Lustrous watercolors illuminate this finely crafted period piece set against the Dempsey-Tunney boxing match of 1927. Willie Brinkman works every day after school selling newspapers in Cincinnati, and with his hero, Jack Dempsey, attempting a comeback for the world heavyweight championship, he eagerly signs up to sell "extras" the night of the fight. The family gathers around the radio to listen scenes Lewin (illustrator of Borden's Just in Time for Christmas) depicts by showing the rapt family in color and the boxers in black and white. When Dempsey loses, it takes true grit on Willie's part to keep his pledge and try to sell the unpopular news. Based on an event in first-time author Kroeger's father's childhood, the story is seamlessly told, with loving attention to detail, and Lewin's gift for portraiture brings the characters, and an era, to glowing life. Ages 5-9. (Mar.)
Lopate
Gr 1-3 The big story here is the 1927 Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney fight for the World Heavyweight Championship in Chicago. The small story, through, is about Willie Brinkman, a paperboy on a "small potatoes" corner in Cincinnati. In the hours preceding the famous fight, the sense of excitement mounts and the youngster signs up to sell the "Fight Extra." The drama of this particular moment in sports history aligns with Willie's personal drama, as the large family gathers around Pop's wooden radio. It is with frustration and disbelief that Willie realizes that Dempsey has missed his moment in the seventh round and will not regain his title. The sense of unfairness follows Willie like a shadow as he makes his way through the dark streets to pick up the papers he has no heart to sell and few in the neighborhood have the heart to buy. His sense of duty is not lost on his boss, though, who, next day, counts off 225 papers and says: "I need a boy who shows up, and who works, win or lose." Lewin's watercolors bring Willie's Cincinnati to life. The streets and buildings are large and enveloping, creating not only a strong sense of place and time, but of the youngster's small, particular, emerging place in it. Black-and-white "stills" of Dempsey and Tunney share some pages with vivid, animated full-color scenes of the Brinkman family. An engaging work that will bring home, through well-chosen details and a well-told story, the intimate connections one can make with "famous facts" when the personal perspective is added. Susan Powers, Rock Creek Forest Elementary School, Chevy Chase, MD
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