Y'ALL! I have a cover! And a preorder link!

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250623720

ALSO! A thread about Effa and this book and why this book is so important. https://twitter.com/MacKidsBooks/status/1275549575349239809

I majored in sport management w/ a dream of being the first female MLB GM. After college I went home to KC and started working at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. On my first day, @nlbmprez gave me a tour and I learned about Effa.

Her story always stood out to me not just because she was a woman working in the male-dominated world of pro sports but bc she was also a tireless advocate for the Black community and a woman who wasn't afraid to challenge the men around her.

Nobody talks about this, but the integration of MLB, particularly in the way it happened, was highly problematic. Branch Rickey never paid the KC Monarchs for Jackie Robinson's contract, and the owners couldn't say much, lest they appear to be impeding racial progress.

Effa knew that Robinson's signing would have adverse implications for the Negro Leagues—which were, primarily, Black-owned businesses—and she fought like hell to work with MLB toward a mutually beneficial integration solution. It didn't work.

BUT the floodgates that were supposed to open for Black players never did. It took more than a decade for every MLB team to have at least *one* Black player. Meanwhile, the Negro Leagues that supported so many Black players, coaches, and executives were done. Over.

& this is what integration looked like over & over again in the US: Cherry-pick a few "good" Black people, bring them into a hostile environment, forbid them from fighting against racism or even standing up for themselves, & tear down the Black institutions from whence they came

I say all this to say: There is a reason that I chose to write this book—this history on Effa and Black baseball as a whole—for kids. Right now, we're witnessing a nation of adults who know perilously little about our past and, thus, are ill-equipped to lead us into the future.

I want to change that. Kids nonfiction doesn't always get the love that other genres of kidlit do, but it's *vitally* important. History books aren't great; curricula aren't great. These are the books that can fill in the gaps.

I am SO excited to get this baby into the hands of kids come January, but until then, PLEASE preorder!

LINK, AGAIN https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250623720

Y'all hear this all the time, but preorders matter—especially for Black authors, and especially for books like this that typically get lower advances than fiction titles. Show publishing that there is a hunger for the stories of the past that kids need to understand our present.

Also: If you're a Black writer—in fiction, in academia, in journalism, for adults, WHATEVER—and you're even remotely interested in writing kids NF, please know that WE NEED YOU. DMs are open if you have any Qs about the process, my backstory, querying, whatever.

COME THRU