Sailing Commitment Around The World By Bill Pinkney

A new children’s book written by Captain Bill Pinkney and illustrated by noted Chicago artist Pamela C. Rice, tells the story of Captain Bill’s historic solo sail around the world in 1990.

Sailing Commitment Around the World aims to inspire readers from 8 to 12-years-old with stories, adventures, and sights of the voyage and the lessons Captain Bill learned at sea: dream big, persevere and don’t be distracted by hurdles that come with moving forward.

“In the seventh grade I read a book by an author named Armstrong Sperry: Call It Courage, it was a story that touched my heart because I felt very much like the hero of the story. He, like me had been an outcast. He was an outcast because he was afraid of the water. I had been an outcast because in school I was one of a few black children and the other kids were not kind to us. I grew up without a father, (my parents divorced when I was six, so my mom, sister and I were on public aid for a while. Always on the outside never being a part of the crowd I felt alone. When I read the story about this young boy who was on the outside like me, and how he took his destiny into his own hands and had a great adventure, I knew that was what I wanted too.” — Bill Pinkney