Reviews

The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game by Jez Tuya, Nancy Churnin

afro8921's review against another edition

4.0

I never knew the story behind the signs umpires make at baseball games. The William Hoy story provides insight in a easily accessible way. Perfect for one on one reading and for non-fiction book for school aged children who love baseball.

snazel's review against another edition

5.0

Once I read this, I went around telling people the story for like two weeks, because it's so cool. And of COURSE Umpire hand signals are based in ASL. That makes perfect sense! But I never knew that, and I never knew that there were a significant number of Deaf/HoH baseball players at the turn of the century, and I never knew that they changed the game and made it better for everyone from the players to the observers.

5elementknitr's review against another edition

5.0

What an amazing story!

Truthfully, I only enjoy baseball when I can see it live. I always wondered why the hand signals, and now I know!

abigailbat's review against another edition

3.0

Colorful illustrations bring the start of William Hoy's baseball career to life. Although I really appreciated learning Hoy's story and I think this will be a popular pick with kids (baseball is very popular here), I was left a little cold by the lack of sources. Author Nancy Churnin demonstrates how Hoy's signs for the umpire (so he would know if a ball or strike had been called, etc.) caught on and were appreciated by the general public. But in the author's note she says "William Hoy was not the only person to introduce hand signals to the game..." so I'm unclear whether Hoy's signs changed the entire game of baseball and whether his signs (American Sign Language signs) were the signs eventually adopted as standard.

Still, this will be a crowd-pleaser.

libraryrobin's review against another edition

5.0

Excellent baseball bio that doesn't shy away from the discrimination and nastiness he faced.

mjspice's review against another edition

 https://twitter.com/razanwrites/status/1580994233732804608
#SaveAndFreePalestine 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide

thewinnielife's review against another edition

5.0

I love children's biographies and learning about new amazing people! Baseball stories are some of my favorites and this is a really well done one about deaf baseball player William Hoy.

sarahrusty's review against another edition

5.0

This book literally hit it out of the park for me. I loved getting to read about such a strong individual that used his different abilities to his advantage. Baseball needs to be talking about William Hoy more, because he was an incredibly inspiring man. I loved the format of the book and it made it easily accessible to all audiences.

teganbeese's review against another edition

5.0

I had no idea!! This is so interesting! What an amazing man. And a player for the White Sox to boot! Monarch Nominee 2018.

afro75's review against another edition

4.0

I never knew the story behind the signs umpires make at baseball games. The William Hoy story provides insight in a easily accessible way. Perfect for one on one reading and for non-fiction book for school aged children who love baseball.