Silent Star is a picture book biography of William Hoy, a professional baseball player in the late nineteenth century who flourished in his career despite his inability to hear.

The book starts with a lively description of one of Hoy’s record-breaking games and then goes back to the scene, when Hoy was three years old, when an illness left him with hearing impairment. We follow him through his growing-up years, both at home and at a special school for the deaf. He played baseball well in school but people assumed his disability would keep him from playing pro ball.

Always deliberate and hard-working, Hoy became a cobbler. He built a baseball diamond behind his shop, encouraging boys to play ball there. It was on that field, when he was playing with the boys, that he was discovered by a talent scout and hired on to a baseball team.

The book follows his career and concludes with where his career took him after he left professional baseball. I was left impressed by his perseverance, his talent, and his ability for hard work.

This book has a hefty word count–2518 words!–but the book design has been carefully thought out to keep the pages from feeling too word-heavy. The text on most pages is placed in a box made to look like an old-timey notepad.

It was especially interesting to read this book after I’d read Nancy Churnin’s recent book, The William Hoy Story. The books take different approaches to his life, focusing on different aspects of his career. The art in the two books underlines the differences. They’d be a great pair to look at together, thinking about why each author made the choices they did.

Lee and Low has an interview with the author posted on their website.

Silent Star: The Story of Deaf Major Leaguer William Hoy, by Bill Wise, illustrated by Adam Gustavson. Lee and Low: 2018.

Alyson Beecher hosts the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge at kidlitfrenzy.com. Visit there for more great nonfiction picture books!