Charles R. Smith

Stories and poems about playing basketball.

A series of short stories by such authors as Walter Dean Myers, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Joseph Bruchac, interspersed with poems and photographs, provides different perspectives on a game of streetball played one steamy July day at the West 4th Street court in New York City known as The Cage.

A baseball tries to talk a young boy into going outside to play by describing the throwing, catching, and hitting they can do together.

Illustrations and simple, rhyming text encourage the reader to wiggle, shake, and twirl to the beat.

"Hop on the bike with Bessie Stringfield, the motorcycle queen of Miami, in this powerful picture book from Coretta Scott King medalist Charles R. Smith, Jr. and debut picture book illustrator Charlot Kristensen. In 1929, 18-year-old Bessie Stringfield hopped on her motorcycle and headed out on an adventure, an unusual choice for a young Black woman at the time. Paying her way by winning motorcycle races, she criss-crossed the country through small...

A basketball asks to be taken outside to play.

"One hundred years ago, one of the most popular spectator sports was bicycle racing, and the man to beat was Marshall "Major" Taylor, who set records in his teens and won his first world championship by age twenty. The first African American world champion in cycling and the second Black athlete to win a world championship in any sport, Major Taylor faced down challenge after challenge, not least the grueling Six-Day Race, a test of speed, strength,...

In this poetic and photographic celebration of baseball, Charles R. Smith Jr.'s clever wordplay and vibrant images capture the many facets of life lived on the diamond.

"In 1934, Chicago was the setting for one of the most fascinating ballgames in history: the second annual East-West Games. Come step back in time to see the best of the best Negro League players take each other on in this All-Star Game. This exhilarating play-by-play is a tour de force: a complete imagining of the radio broadcast of that thrilling game. You'll meet the legendary players, step into the stands with the fans, and even hear the radio...