Introduction

The Journal of Biddy Owens is about Biddy Owens and his Negro League baseball team. The book also has some history in it because Walter Dean Myers describes how African American people were treated in the middle 1900s.

Summary

This story is about a young man named Biddy Owens who loves baseball but doesn’t get to play much for the Birmingham Black Barons, a very good Negro League baseball team. The story takes place in 1948 and everybody in the Negro Leagues is worried because a lot of the baseball players were being brought up from the Negro Leagues and into the Major Leagues. Just a year ago Jackie Robinson was playing for the Kansas City Monarchs and Lary Doby was playing for the Newark Eagles.

The story also talks about what African Americans went through in the early to middle 1900s. They had separate drinking fountains, separate waiting rooms, and when there was an important baseball game the seats would be segregated.

Main Character

Biddy Owens is a young man who pays baseball for a Negro League team called the Birmingham Black Barons. He has a mom, a dad, and a sister named Rachel. Biddy loves baseball but he is one of the worst baseball players on the team. When he knows he isn’t going to play Biddy goes to collage and coaches the baseball team there.

Setting

This story takes place in Birmingham, Alabama in 1948. The team travels to other ballparks in the eastern United States.

About the Author

Walter Dean Myers was born in West Virginia in 1937 but he grew up in Harlem. He was raised by foster parents and remembers a happy life as a child. In 1954 he quit high school and then joined the army. He won a contest held by the Council on Interracial Books for Children with his book called Where Does a Day Go in 1969, which started his career. He volunteers at schools in Jersey City where he now lives.

Book Review

I think this book was very good because it was very well written. The story told a lot about what life was like in the 1940’s and 1950’s. It also talked about how African American athletes were treated. I also liked the book because the story was about baseball when it started to desegregate.