SHELLEY SOMMER Local author, Shelley Sommer, is the author of the biography of Hank Greenberg, the first Jewish baseball hall-of-famer, who battled anti-Semitism on and off the field. Hank Greenberg was raised in New York City, the son of Romanian-Jewish immigrants, and went on to become a baseball legend. This thought-provoking biography follows him from his service during WWII, his long career with the Detroit Tigers - where the moniker Hammerin' Hank came to life - and finally to his role as a baseball executive.
Readers will experience the prejudice Greenberg endured, even as he made his way into the annals of baseball history: two-time AL MVP, 331 home runs, and first Jewish baseball player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Archival photos add to the appeal of this amazing story.
Shelley Sommer works at Inly School in Scituate, MA, where she is the director of the library and an upper school literature teacher. Before joining Inly in 2000, Shelley worked for 15 years as the director of public relations for the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston. She holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Dayton and an M.A. in children’s literature from Simmons College. Shelley’s first biography for young readers, John F. Kennedy: His Life and Legacy, was published in 2005 by HarperCollins Children’s Books. Every day Shelley inspires the Inly students and staff to read, by sharing her infectious love of books. You can find out how by reading her blog, Sommer Reading, at www.sommerreading.com.
